Glue & Duct tape
by Constance Greene
Summary: This world was beginning to remind me of the Super Mega Barf o Rama Rollercoaster of Hellish Doom catastrophe. — RikuSoraKairi
1. All The Places In Between

**D.isclaimer  
**_K_ingdom Hearts does not belong to me. If it did, then it's obvious what I would have wanted. Yet I must be content with what I have gotten.

**S.ummary  
**_R_iku has been sharing nightmares with Sora – how he is quite sure that he'll be the one to open the ever-alluring and mysterious door inside their Secret Place. However, the two boy's destinies seem to contort and shatter at the last minute, ending up with Sora missing and darkness rapidly engulfing their island. This forces Riku and Kairi to search for their companion, leaving little other choice – while Riku must put back the pieces of their destinies using only simple glue and duct tape from elementary days.

**N.otes  
**_D_on't let confusion stop you. It's better than the summary sounds, believe me. So I will not continue to hinder your interest with my pointless rambling words that come from my thoughts rather than the ones from my dreams.  
_R_ated T for language, some crude sexual humour, and just… to be safe.  
_R_eviews are appreciated; since this is practically my first fanfic – even though **Tatikara** had helped a lot and I love her for it – other's people's opinions are cherished, too. I'd like to know how I did or what you dear readers thought. X3;

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Glue & Duct tape  
Chapter** One **. _All the Places in between  
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_Door Door Door Door Door Door._

That was all I could think as I looked at it. I stood a few yards away, never closer. If I took a step foreward I think it would somehow grow invisible feet and take a step _away_ from me. Then it would be an illusion and I'd be relieved to know that the door was just another figment conjured from my nightmares. I'd wake up, duck my head into the severe black darkness of the Secret Place and check if it was there or not, staring back at me with veiled eyes that glow an ominous animal yellow propped on the back wall. Except I had already done that chore during consciousness. The out-of-place cavern exit had been there, mocking my collected demeanor, threateningly innocuous and tempting me to touch it while it taunted me to feel its realness against my skin.

In my sleep, my palm twitched and my hand nearly clenched.

_Door to the Light._

I knew that already. It was a fact that had made itself well known to me in the past month. Yet I cannot help but to speculate and think the exact opposite. In my dreams, it was always submerged in darkness. Inky tendrils like thick smoke curling beneath the door, reaching out to me with their snarling fingers. Soon the whole place would be blacked out, and I'd feel their icy death grip around my throat. Suffocating me. Killing me.

It wasn't a door to light. It was a door to the darkness.

And I was supposed to be the one to open it. I knew that, too. I had been the only one who ever expressed any interest in the strange door; to Sora and Kairi and the rest of them, they were oblivious of its tantalizing existence. Still, I couldn't help but start to feel a little afraid. Those dark figures would surely launch themselves out at me behind the door the minute I opened it just a crack and devour me with their pointy teeth that I knew they had because they had bitten me with them before on my hands and arms in my reoccurring nightmares. Sometimes when I woke I thought I saw faint marks that could have been puncture scars, but they went away within a day. It might have been because I forgot about them.

What would happen to the world if I opened the door?

Doors brought you places. Doors also kept you out of places and kept you in places.

Like this imprisonment of an archipelago.

Sora had been pestering me with his dreams that I couldn't help but find startlingly familiar to my own, crazy stuff about giant silhouettes that attacked him and being swallowed up by pits made of tar-like substance. Listening to him and making sense of it was like trying to hold an intelligent conversation with a delirious, insane and raving baboon.

Like a few days before.

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately."

"Oh, yeah?"

Sora bobbed his head encouragingly. It only provoked me.

"Puberty," I handed out in a mocking voice.

He blushed wildly, tossing his mane of spikes to and fro to see if anyone was around who had heard that. "_Riku!_" The kid tried to hiss but only succeeded on gushing out his chords of embarrassment. Hell, I nearly felt embarrassed at myself. Surprise, surprise.

So I pushed him away, and all the outrageous things he said. Declared they were such adjectives. I knew better but I didn't want to believe I was falling under the same fate as my friend. Wouldn't it be nice if these were just regarded as wet dreams? I thought those were supposed to be pleasurable – nearly being brutally killed in each of them, unless I had just converted into masochism, I did not find pleasurable at all. The only wetness I came up with when I awoke would be my own cold sweat, reeking with fear.

They were still clawing at my face, shadowy creatures ripping it apart. I just wish they'd do that to my nightmare instead of me.

_Door Door Door Door. _

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

"_Riku."_

So far away. I'm not there.

"Riku."

I can't breathe. I'm being murdered. You can't save me from this death with just my name. _No matter how angelic it may sound coming from your heavenly vocals,_ I thought.

"Wake up."

I wish. It was easier said than done. I woke up anyway. Satan's bidders were done with me until tonight's haunted slumber.

A soft groan escaped my cracked lips, probably from me biting them in my unconsciousness rather than the sea's sharp breeze that rose up from the ocean and whipped at the beach where I lied. My head erupted with a splitting headache that hadn't been there before I had drifted off peacefully this late afternoon. I could still feel their hands locked around my neck, choking me. My own hands almost flew up to clutch the place I surely thought would be a canvas of black and blue.

"Get up."

I'd rather die.

"Please."

Piss off.

"Please, Riku!"

My eyes flew open. I was staring up at the darkening sky, the last orange dredges of the sunset drifting lazily through the navy blue of evening. No matter how much I tried, I could not ignore Kairi's pleas any longer, wherever she was. I had a notion that she had stuck her face near mine earlier when her voice had been loudest, but had drawn back in failure of her desperate attempts to rouse me. Knowing my present luck, it had only sounded close because I was gradually being lifted from my sleep. Even further knowing my sorry luck, that was not Kairi's sweet and naturally feminine perfume that entered my nostrils and what I thought were her articulate words had actually been the squawking of a seagull while it decided which part of my body should become its toilet.

I was obviously not chipper even after being resurrected from a deadly nightmare of horrors galore.

Sand was in my hair, but that was no problem. Not entirely sturdily, I propped myself up on my elbows and flicked my head. It felt like I had been decapitated at that second, my neck probably worn down from the death massage of the demons in the nightmare, and was now flying across the ocean like a projectile. Shit.

Kairi was sitting there beside me, finally looking up and noticing my signs of life. She appeared to be sniffling.

"Kairi, what . . . ?" I began somewhat gently, though incredulous and half-pissed at her for letting me endure this headache as I already began to slowly lose recollection of the nightmare. But my voice was also pitying. She appeared so hopeless and helpless, like a little lost doe. I was also grateful that she had rescued me from being at mercy of those dreadful monstrosities. My pulse was loud and clear in my skull and was acting as the throbbing beat of my headache so I knew I was still living. This wasn't a continuation of the nightmare.

"You're awake! Oh, good!" She sounded more relieved than I had been feeling, yet acting as if she had just been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to.

"Yeah, thanks to you. What do you want?" I was beginning to become more snappish, my sarcastic apparel coming into play. It was a bitter taste on my tongue; I didn't like acting like this around Kairi. Besides, she looked like she was dancing to say something really important. It reminded me of how Sora once looked when he was littler and had to go to the bathroom but there wasn't one on the islands and refused to piddle in the bushes. Ha, ha. How I had teased him for years about that time.

"Be a man, Sora. You're not a girl that has to sit down to do that!"

"But I . . . I _can't!_" The brunette protested while doing a strange jig and pouting his lips. I couldn't ever pout like him. It's physically impossible for me and besides, I would never allow myself to if I could.

"Why not?" I had gone a couple times when no one was around to look. Or I had always been able to hold it and row back to my house with running water and porcelain toilets. It startled and amused me at the same time that Sora wouldn't just get his ass behind a tree and get it over with.

"Because . . . well, what would the _plants_ think if I _peed_ on them?" He whispered, horrified for the bushes' cause. Sora, the tree-hugger who pissed weed killer. Oh Jesus.

"Um . . ." Her large blue eyes dragged over to the side, diverting her gaze to the sand as she wrung her fingers. I continued to watch her carefully. She struggled for composure and I struggled for patience. Had I been dwelling too long in the past that she had forgotten the exciting thing she wanted to tell me so badly? Her dark crimson hair brushed into her face as she inclined her head, and I watched that, too.

"It's Sora," She said suddenly, finally deciding. "I don't know where he is."

That wasn't entirely bad news. He had been there on the islands before I had fallen asleep on the beach from abrupt drowsiness, playing with Kairi on the eastern islet. His lack of absence had let me sleep without a dream for at least a half hour. But as I remembered the franticness of her voice penetrating my stupor, I began to get a whiff of her worry.

"So?"

"So I want you to help me look for him," She said with worried eyes. Pleading again.

"All right." There was an uncomfortable feeling in the air that made it so I couldn't refuse. If I had pondered harder and longer on it rather than gone with my impulses, it would have reminded me of the stuffy, cold feeling of the nightmares. Regardless of the headache, I still held my leadership dominance as I swaggered up into a standing position with her. Scouting for Sora wasn't my first priority, but if I could do it to be with Kairi and prolong the search a little bit . . . "Let's first check the dock to see if his boat is missing, okay?"

It was.

She stared down at our pair of small wooden boats bobbing nonchalantly on the tide, silent. The fourteen year-old was contemplating something and I knew it. I tried to peek beneath her shadowed visage and see her expression but her darned pretty hair was in the way. If I had been able to I would have seen her face collapse with dread.

"See? Sora just retired early, that's all. Probably wanting dinner, since he didn't bring anything for a snack today."

"I . . . I'm not sure."

I blinked. "What do you mean?" It was undeniable proof that Sora had indeed done what I had predicted. He just can't deny his stomach.

"I mean . . . can we check somewhere else, okay?"

It wasn't like someone had stolen his boat. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie had all left before I had taken a nap and they weren't coming back. No one wanted his stupid boat anyway. It was in the worst shape out of all of ours.

Something was wrong. I could feel the tension on the air like earlier and breathe it into my lungs like poison with difficulty. I think I knew it when I saw Sora's puny boat floating yards away, cast off to the side in the reeds.

Kairi had seen it too. Before me, apparently.

"He probably just bumped his head or something, and is off in a corner, crying it off." I reassured her, wrestling with the fact that he might be in more danger than that. He was such a wimp sometimes, so I could believe that self-told lie.

Kairi was unconvinced. It was hard to get through to her, and even in my degrading attitude she did not point out my meanness of accusing Sora of crying. I tried and I tried to ease off her troubled thoughts of Sora but to no avail. Getting her mind off of him was hopeless on my part. She was like a mother duck, a nurse, or a lover. I shut out that last option, of course.

Faultily, I made another attempt at this with a soft sigh, bottling up my frustration. "When did you last see him?"

"I don't . . ."

Kairi looked desperate and in distress. She was still entwining her hands together nervously. My eyelids fluttered, the last of my patience drying up and being carried on my voice with an undertone of steadiness.

"You were with him, weren't you?"

"He . . . he wandered off. I was working on my bracelet. At first it really . . . interested him . . ." Her eyes nearly glittered like diamonds with tears. Kairi wasn't a crybaby like Sora. She was always happy (don't get me wrong, Sora was too – nauseously so – but he was also extremely sensitive), and seeing that unexpected buildup of moisture made me want to punch something in my chagrin. Whatever she wasn't going to say wasn't going to be good.

"You know Sora, Riku!" Blurted she in her last attempts to hold herself together, squirting a fountain of glistening tears. Seeing her break down like that made me itch with losing control. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and hold her close, telling her not to worry about Sora because she still had me. I was there to protect her and always look after her. I was there to love her and not cast away my love like it was an in-and-out subject on my short attention span.

I didn't. I waited for her to stop crying and she wiped her eyes with a sniff. In the meanwhile, I was watching the sky that had thunderheads billowing up on the horizon. They had not been there earlier when we began our search.

My attention warily turned back to my friend. I swallowed before trying to wriggle information out of her. It was important, dammit. Every pore on my body agreed with me on that decision.

"What aren't you telling me, Kairi?" I prodded.

She glanced back at me uncertainly, almost ready to skip away and continue our fruitless search.

I think my Adam's apple became a lump of lead in my throat and sank before her lips parted to speak.

"I think Sora was killed."

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**N.otes  
**_I_ suppose I should be sued for an ending like that. I know one person is already filing a death warrant for me. In the meanwhile, the next chapter is my biggest concern. And don't worry about any out of story rambling at the beginning of the next chapters. That annoys me when you're itching to read and have to wade through all that junk first, neh? And if you're wondering about the whole 'glue and duct tape' thing… I'll get to that. Metaphors at their best.


	2. Falling to Pieces

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Glue & Duct tape  
Chapter** Two **. _Falling to Pieces  
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I remember going back to my first nightmare again last night. It began more like a dream, because even if there was darkness, I was not afraid of it.

_Do not be afraid._

For the time being, I obeyed that god-like disembodied voice, probably because my head was locked by its massive, steering hands of domineering control. Later I'd wish I _had_ started to get a little scared. Maybe then the dream would have ended faster.

There was a floor, liquid or solid, I could not tell. Every time my feet touched the black ocean, a halo of light would ripple out beneath it and then melt into the surrounding shadows. Yet I did not feel like the candle in a world of darkness. I felt just like another part of it. A figure, at first plunged unwillingly into this obscure situation but slowly beginning to remember that they were just another puzzle piece, the last missing link. I'd have to give in and put things right. I had to sacrifice myself –

_Shut up_, I told the voice. I was beginning to find its advice distasteful.

It apparently shied away in a confused flurry, as if caught doing something when not in the right mind and coming back to its senses. I was alone, for now. That was fine. I wasn't afraid. I could traverse this dimension a thousand times and still be strolling by my independent self.

A few more footsteps in my sneakers (crafted for a giant) seemed to lead me somewhere. 'Somewhere' as a word probably wasn't even in this empty place's dictionary. It was nothing, just an abandoned realm.

Even so, some_thing_ else was in there with me.

I turned and blinked at the presence, eyes pinpointing veins of dim blue light in a spider-web pattern across the . . . wall? The only way to find out was to touch it, so my hand reached out (previously shielding my vision because of the suddenness it had materialized) to place itself on what was now a stone wall. The place beneath my pale hand glowed, sending a chain-reacting to the streaks on the backdrop that suddenly became clearer gossamers, as if flooded with the strange blue light.

When the wall turned into another magic trick, my reaction was to draw my hand back in surprise. The plan backfired, as the palm seemed to be _glued_ onto the rounded boulder. Gritting my teeth and sneering in effort, creating a flash of pearly whites in the dreary surroundings, I vainly attempted to wrench my hand away. Eventually I had to resort to using the hand that was not stuck to clasp my wrist and tug with the rising sense of panic at my heels. What kind of dream _was_ this?

What I tried only left a blaring red mark on my wrist, ridiculing my desperate endeavor of freeing myself. "Grah." My turquoise eyes rolled up to the ceiling that could have extended on for miles, a ceiling that could not be found. I did this as if I was searching for help, and help could be found if I looked to the nonexistent heavens. This was a nightmare and nightmares didn't have angels that rescued you from them, unfortunately.

I started to put my foot on the wall but luckily caught myself at the last minute. If I had, I'd be even more tangled up in this deceiving web.

_Stop,_ I told myself under my breath in a quiet pant. _Stop and think this through a second. _What could I do to escape? Obviously, brute strength or any other physical action made little difference.

Usually I was able to lazily segue through anything in a cool and collected manner. Right now I was just struck on the intent of getting out of here. I had momentarily forgotten what had tempted me into touching the wall in the first place amidst the strife and now remembered. Something was in this nightmare with me. Something; more unknown nouns were not anything I wanted to collect at the moment.

I had to wake up before it got me. Before it hurt me. Before it killed me.

All sensibility had abandoned my unconsciousness, of tales that you could not die in a dream and that you'd wake up before you did. Well, I didn't want to go through the shit before I was supposed to die. I knew it wasn't going to be a quick and painless 'death.'

A fleeting memory occurred to me of what I always used to do when I was enduring a bad dream and could still use my mind in it; instantly I shut my eyes tight and dug teeth into my lower lip and a beautifully revitalizing rush of pain erupted in my head almost the second I did so. Only a strangled noise came up from my throat. Opened my eyes and still saw only the thick black sheet above me.

I blinked, hard as possible. Sometimes _that_ even worked. Yet no clues told me I was back in bed when my eyelids fluttered back open.

_Oh shit, but please. The zombie's nearly on our asses._

My own words from six years before echoed in my ears, holding the steady calmness of a person who was also at the same time scared to death.

I was sitting in Sora's dimly-lit living room on the couch, and our faces were colourlessly alight by the glowing TV screen. What was playing was one of those old bogus black-and-white horror films that could have been silent if it weren't for the over-acted Hollywood screams. There was a zombie – a big, mean, don't-fuck-with-me type before he had died, surely, and rotted his eyes out. Now he feasted for living flesh. It seemed he particularly preferred young women's flawless skin and organs.

"Oh, shit! The zombie's nearly on our asses!" Came my yell, not from fear but from hilarity in attempt to make a joke as a light-haired chick ran across the screen, waving her arms frantically as the man-eating zombie stalked after her. I had not attempted to keep my strong vocabulary down so Sora's mother couldn't hear, however.

"Oh no!" Sora shrieked and looked close to what the girl would do, hands flying up to cover his face. He was such a weenie, even though I thought I saw the flicker of white teeth between his fingers from his open-mouthed grin. The brunette's abrupt action had disturbed the bowl of popcorn on his lap, and while he wasn't looking I snatched it from him, overlooking the spot where it should sit fairly between us on the sofa, and plopped it in my own vicinity. I then commenced in chucking popcorn at the television.

A boring part graced us quickly. The ladies' head had already been ripped off by the zombie, who had no problem catching up to her when she had fallen. Nine at the time, I had yet to know the obscene irony of wearing high heels in a graveyard at night. Now the police were gathered around on the screen, and I elbowed my friend and made it as close to a punch as I could.

"Dum-dum, the scary part's over. You can stop pissing in your pants now."

He resurfaced good-naturedly but that emotion rapidly turned into a tentative expression on his face as he noticed the popcorn strewn on the floor. "Wh-what's that?"

"Dunno. The zombie's hot on our trail so he must've – aw man, you missed it!" And I pretended to draw my attention back to the TV.

Sora could be fucked over by the zombie, but I wasn't going to. I didn't want to be the victim of my own stupid nightmarish creatures.

Reluctantly I was snared by an invisible hook that reeled me out of my reverie

(a dream within a dream)

(_one horror movie to the next_)

but still did not take me off of the wall. I grimaced, at first because of the sour luck of it all, then at the wintry pressure on my locked wrist that I had not noticed before. My heart began to beat in my throat rather than my chest as I froze, daring myself to drag my eyes to my arm where surely the gnarled hand of the zombie would rest, raw and decaying green-tinged flesh on my irritated skin. And it'd fall apart in my hesitating trance but still have a firm grip on me, of course, and turn blood red then black like it had been burned. But its grip would still be relentless.

_I see a red door and I want it painted black._

Wonderful time for lyrics to pop in my head.

_I wanna see it painted, painted black._

But it was already black.

And it wasn't a hand, or a door, or any other limb of a zombie.

It was a paw. A colossal paw, with digits curled maliciously into claws, fledged with talons.

If I were Sora, I bet I'd scream profusely, vocals sounding in a hundred screeching bells. Thank God I wasn't. Instead I began to sputter, and my eyes probably did bug out a little at what I saw standing – no, _hunching_ – feet away from me, half-submerged in shadows.

It – that's as best as a pronoun that I could come up with – was huge. The _segment_ on the ground wouldn't be all that monstrous if there wasn't a grotesque tumor-like formation sprouting from its back, writhing and shuddering in ecstasy as it bounced on its web, watching my lively struggles with a hundred jittering yellow eyes.

What was closest to me was a creature that resembled a panther, and its counterpart an enormous spider with multiple (couldn't have been just eight) legs tumbling down, prodding, searching, scraping the walls and floors. Both consisted of atramentous quality, but the paw resting on my forearm was definitely solid.

I looked into its feline face and vigilant lips quickly pulled back to reveal ivory fangs in a snarl, black tongue like diseased smoke curling out of its gaping maw that meant to latch onto my head. It didn't need to get any closer,

(_o shit the zombie's on our asses_)

but I could hear the scuttling of the bloated spider in one ear as it climbed down its web to greet me and feel the freezing breath of the cat-beast on my other ear, stirring platinum strands of hair into my eye. While one would weave a poisonous blanket around me, the other would strip my bones clean of everything around them.

Those inch-long teeth got dangerously close, and I could almost feel the smooth hardness of them on my cheek, not yet piercing. I winced and shut my eyes, bracing myself for a certain death of being eaten alive.

"_No._" Without really thinking about it, I had sternly and verbally opposed of this conclusion. "I won't let you get me." I stared into the panther's emotionless amber orbs and it seemed to hold my gaze. "I won't let you. Do you hear me?" Nothing was in those eyes. "_I won't let you._" They were as empty as the void around us.

My leg bent up from under me and with a growl that could have been a big shadow cats like this one, connected with the predator's jet black chest in a haughty kick. I glanced up at its eyes with a grimace to see its reaction, which was absolutely nothing. After that moment it seemed to get bored of waiting.

A disgruntled cry marked my inevitable defeat as I turned my head and did not watch the monstrosity descend.

Without warning the floor began to shift. The monster and I blinked, a hundred and four eyes put together, and then a darker than black portal began to form at my feet, swirling sluggishly like an infant whirlpool. I began to sink into the pit, vines of darkness slithering up my legs and coiling around my body, pulling me down. I noticed that my hand was finally free and I hadn't done a thing to make it that way as I watched the equally surprised expressions of the It.

_Goodbye, suckers, _I couldn't help but think, _may you burn in Hell for all eternity. _Alas, my distinct relief was evanesced, soon tipped over by a new tide of dread and horror. I was trapped again, and I had a feeling wherever I'd go wouldn't be to safety.

I was falling.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

_I'm falling and I cannot get back up. There is only darkness – my lungs are congested with it like frigid water. I'm drowning in it. My eyes are being ripped and grabbed at until I can't see anything anymore. Blindness now envelopes me like the darkness did. It's a good thing too, sort of, because I don't want to see what horrible terrible things are out there in front of me behind me at my feet and head grabbing reaching tearing breaking. What are these things I cannot see them I want to scream but my throat's constricted cannot breathe cannot feel only pain and that ugly _full_ feeling like after eating too much at a big dinner. Not a good wholesome full, a sick full. Can't get away even if I'm sinking. There's no end to this. No bottom where I'll drop and break all my bones and splatter ounces and ounces of blood my blood and bruise my fair skin. Used to get sunburned and he'd laugh oh he'd laugh and he'd laugh because he could get perfect tans just by sitting out for a few minutes baking. Mom would have to take care of me she would and then he'd come by and laugh and laugh but then begin to try and feel sorry. But he couldn't and I hated him for that. I hate him for that. _

_I'm falling . . ._

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

There is a transition point between dreaming and waking; a point that is just blackness with a lot of distorting fog over it. I was nearly breaking through to that point while plummeting head-first into the spacious gap of my nightmare. Even though my body was rigid as I fell except for the gentle fluttering of my clothes as they were combed through by some imaginary wind, I was sure that back inside my bed, light years away I was tossing and turning like anyone would in any old bad dream. Too bad this wasn't a frequently visited nightmare. This felt like it was for real.

I could only imagine what would happen when I reached the bottom of this endless abyss.

After perhaps minutes of idle free-falling, I performed a languid somersault in the air that let my feet delicately touch ground again. The ground seemed to be stained glass with a mural I couldn't make out in the dankness.

For my first time at sky-diving and acrobatics, I guess I did pretty well.

Fear had completely deserted me once more. Now I was just aware of everything and nothing at all. You know the feeling – when your mind is open to things, but they don't necessarily all flood in at the same time and you're slow to register? Anyway, I was at a precious state of peace.

Ever so fortunate for my regained tranquility to be lost again by yet another intrusion.

At first, I thought, _Oh shit, the cat/spider beast fell into the hole with me. _If that were true, then it would have probably plopped on top of me, right? What I saw came from the corner of my eye, a towering silhouette with a Medusa-like hair-do. That was all I could make out of it, and another – much smaller – smudge dancing all around it like a pixie fairy.

I decided to go watch the odd pair squabble, but before I could take a step foreward something was being summoned up in the direction I had just been facing. Turned out, it was another one of those ogres that was looming off in the distance. Except this one was only yards away from me, and I was going to be its opponent.

Great.

"Stay the hell away from me!" I yelled with a sudden splurge of anger. This was getting old. I clenched my fists and contemplated spitting out some cliché add-on like '_I'm warning you!_' and didn't have the time. It was hunkering down on its massive haunches, ready to pick me up in its crushing grasp and _squeeze_.

I decided to shed my cockiness and run.

The only direction was right – unfortunately, that meant I was heading towards the behemoth duplicate and whatever was fighting it.

Miraculously, I felt like I was running from the zombie. Again.

Once I was as far as I could go without getting too close to the other beast, I skidded to a stop and swung around to face the not-quite-approaching titan. This guy was big and slow. It gave me an advantage. Now, I either had to find a way to get out – another nauseating warp hole, maybe, or wake up. Or find something to fight with.

But what? There was nothing.

I heard grunts of effort coming from behind me. As I watched the battle, the midget was lugging something that could have been a sword. I almost recognized the voice . . .

"Hi-ya!"

"Sora you idiot, you don't say 'hi-ya' while fighting! That's only in karate." I stabbed him in the ribs with my wooden stave. "You're dead."

"Aw man Riku, that's not fair! You distracted me again!"

I rolled my eyes. "_Anything_ distracts you, Sora. A flower petal blowing in the wind would."

"What's the score now, Kairi?"

"Seventeen to nine," The redhead chirruped with a giggle, glad to do something.

Sora gave the girl his infamous pouty look and she giggled again. Louder for him. I nearly glared.

Satisfied with the attention, Sora turned back to me. "What's kah-rah-tee?"

"That's _real_ fighting. You can say all this babbly stuff and get away with it while chopping people's limbs off."

The shadow waved his weapon all around and yelled like a madman, all the while not getting close enough to whacking the giant with it. If only I had something to fight with . . .

"Hm?" A tingling feeling in my right hand disturbed my dazing, along with the now booming footfalls behind me. I glanced down at my hand first and saw a shimmer of silver that reminded me of Christmas tree garland that quickly gave way to the shape of a giant key.

What. The. Fuck.

A guttural sound arose from Mr. Monster in agitation. Never mind this.

I boldly turned to face he who was glaring down at me, poising my poor excuse for a weapon in an offensive stance. _Let's see what this thing's made of._

My own throat mustered up a roar that could have beaten the behemoth's any day as I rushed foreward and plunged the tip of the keyblade into the ugly mother's leg. It sunk in all the way and my arm almost went with it. This guy was just a bunch of malignant mist was all.

It teetered, taking huge steps backwords. I made sure to rip out my weapon before he toppled over, not wanting to go flying again. Jesus, no more of that.

My victory was once more short-lived. As the thing seemed to deteriorate into ashes, I felt myself being pulled back and down again. Jerking my chin over my shoulder, I noticed that it was another oval pool of sludge I was falling into. Further off in the distance where the other two fighters had been was a door.

_You will be the one who will open the door._

"Please," I muttered, tossing my head to the starless sky. "I just want to go home." Through all my weariness I was carried back to the darkness, and all vision faded to black.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

I felt sand or dirt scrape against my palm. I rolled over. I moaned. I opened my eyes and squinted up at the ceiling of the Secret Place.

On wobbling legs I stood and began to shakily tread back home. If I looked behind me, there would be the door. Watching me like the monsters' studying yellow eyes had done.

**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**

**N.otes  
**_Y_es, I am aware that I must only be prolonging the torture. Have no fear, chapter three is near – and then things shall pick back up where they left off, and what may be thirsted to be explained will be. To the best of Kairi's ability, that is. Heh. Heh.  
_L_yrics used are from The Rolling Stone's song, _'Paint it Black.'  
__R_ealization – I'm a horrible writer. My writing is altered by whatever mood I'm in, making the whole thing (if I don't write it all at one time) a mutated mess. This chapter especially. I apologize. Don't worry, I'm not schizo, and I'm not trying to make your brain implode. At least I don't think so, anyway. Have to keep you reading, right?


	3. The Door's Secret

----------------------------  
Glue & Duct tape  
Chapter** Three **. _The Door's Secret  
_-------------------

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"_I think Sora was killed."_

I blinked and all but gaped.

Nothing much surprised me. I had braced myself for practically everything and anything, assembled defenses and artillery to block and shoot down whatever Kairi could fling at them. Sora had gotten into some kind of trouble, whether it is a broken leg or a bruised arm – even run off drunk and passed out in some bar, as outrageously impossible as it sounded. I was well stocked to expect those things and not freak. But nothing had prepared me for this.

"That's stupid," I interjected almost immediately, regaining compatibility after my unseemly show of surprise while I studied her carefully.

"Kairi, what would make you _say_ that? What could Sora possibly have done –"

Or, what was more fitting: _What could you have possibly seen. _Her eyes, big saucers and as deep as the blue sapphire of the ocean, told no lies. There wasn't a notion in them that denied what had come from her mouth in a steady waver; now the thin line of her lips quivered and threatened to dissolve into more tears.

She clasped her milk-white hands together and put them up to shield her mouth from a sob that wrenched their tenderness, though did not fully look away from me. I could see her eyes were far off and no longer intensely fixated on my mystified expression; her mind was somewhere else, perhaps reviewing an image of Sora spontaneously combusting. Dear God.

I lightly shook my head to clear it, and in a way to tell my friend that this wasn't a time for crying. But it could be one for mourning, if it was true that . . .

_No. He isn't dead._

_Sora's dead, you fool._

_I won't let him be, dammit._

My mind fought a battle of right and wrong. One side, speaking with truthfulness from somewhere I didn't begin to have a clue about, refused to believe that Sora could have been killed. My mind, however, by registering what Kairi had told it, thought differently. I stared dully at her now as I processed these choices. Kairi was the symbol of innocence, and with innocence came ignorance, not stupidity. You looked into her telltale eyes and were sometimes tricked into believe the craziest things she said, even if you tossed them aside at first. There would be a second then, and that puzzled second would leave you doubting, 'Well, maybe sea monkeys _do_ exist, after all.'

There was a buzz, though, tucked far away, and it told me Sora was still alive. Maybe not for long, because there was a bad feeling that followed this urgent one, but still alive all the same.

Because I felt numb on the outside. Numb similar to the time after my father had died. No, not exactly – when that had occurred, nothing but the fact had come to me. My father was dead in my life. Sora was not. I could still hear his obtrusive voice chattering away in the back of my head, his laughter floating through the island breeze.

A clammy warmth enveloped my hands that had been forgotten at my sides as Kairi took my them in her own and held them up to as close as an equal chest-level as she could get. "Riku." Her whisper was searching for a response from me, as she had said something while I was daydreaming that I hadn't caught.

"Kairi? What did you say?"

The knowledge of having to repeat herself seemed too much for her to handle. Performing the fated lower-lip-jiggle, I had my fears of her breaking down again. To steady her, I released my hands from her grasp and placed one on each of her shoulders, stooping down to peer into those blue, blue eyes. "I said," She began, biting her lip. Good girl. "I'm scared, Riku."

"Don't be. Because Sora's not dead." And that was that, in my opinion. I let my hands slip because it was uncomfortable for both of us, and slightly turned to face the ocean where that ever-darkening sky lied in wait.

"I didn't really think he was, honest," She admitted in a lower tone, returning to a remotely non-hysterical state. "But the way he looked . . ."

"Kairi, what did you see? I need to know. It'll help Sora." I couldn't do much when I was left in the dark to ponder over the different ways he could have met – or faked – death.

"I told you he walked off, right? Well, I finished my bracelet and then I wanted to go show it to him. It's a really nice bracelet," And her eyes were set alight as she began to grow excited over some stupid bracelet that I'd think would be pretty if I saw it, only because it was hers and her beautifully slender fingers had crafted it.

"On my way looking for him, I passed by our Secret Place."

_Our Secret Place_. Somehow, that word coming from her mouth mentioned in the same sentence with Sora made a twinge of jealousy arise in me. Not a good time, right. Especially when I was gonna go save my buddy. Right.

But _still_ . . .

Despite the partially unintentional balling of my fist, Kairi continued.

"What I heard were . . . noises. People noises, like someone trying to make a lot of sound but not being able to. Remember that time when you put a cloth over Sora's mouth to make him quiet?" I did. He had been going on for days about the BB gun bestowed onto him for Christmas, something I hadn't gotten. I put it to my liberty that gagging him would be a sufficient way to make him shut up about it. So sometimes I bled too much. So what. I really wanted that damn little toy (because really, that's all BB guns were – just toy rifles for first graders), and I had a good laugh about it while Sora was busy making 'mum-mum-muffff' noises. He had told me afterwards that he was still talking about its slick barrel while the rag was restraining his lips from fully moving.

Besides, he had let me shoot coconuts with it the next day. As if nothing had happened. He could disregard my cruelty so easily, perhaps because he was used to the years of teasing, with the breezy casualness we had murdered those rounded furry brown fruits with. He truly was an enigma.

"I saw shadows. Two, I think. A tall figure, slightly bent over, and someone that was kneeling on the ground."

Kairi would have been a great witness if she didn't lose it just then.

"I think it was Sora, Riku! He was hurt! That . . . thing, that thing had hurt him!" And she buried her head in her hands once more, knobby knees pulled up and bent in disarray. I nearly let myself fall into a similar trap, fatigued with the never receding hopelessness.

"How, Kairi? How was he hurt?" I prodded, hoping those weren't sobs that made her bony shoulders shudder like that. This was important. I needed to know in order to determine if he was dead or not – even though I somehow knew he wasn't yet. Yes, I was playing God. But Sora's life literally was on my hands – our hands – and when Kairi broke down like this, we were only wasting more precious time. His internal clock that kept him going, the mysterious muscle called the heart, could be ticking out of existence at that moment, and here we were, sitting on the dock and doing petty things that amounted to absolutely nothing. It was killing me.

"I need you to tell me this so we can get to Sora faster, Kairi. Deep breaths," I instructed, though dreaded that it was a worthless attempt. She had seen too much, apparently, and was keeping those horrible thoughts to herself in a self-induced trauma. If only I could tease out a couple words from her . . .

To my surprise (I had been beginning to lose hope), she cooperated by bobbing her cherry head in a nod. "Whatever it was, might have socked him," She mumbled, guiltily avoiding my gaze. "But it did, it was _hard_, and Sora fell and wouldn't get back up." Finally her head rose enough to steadily look at me. There was a mutual understanding that passed between us just then, like a bubbling heat of electricity (though not the kind I was struck by when near Kairi sometimes). We were going to help Sora and get him back in any way possible. Even if that meant plunging ourselves into unknown danger, too.

"Let's go."

I felt my hand being grabbed as Kairi slipped her delicate one into mine. It was a subconscious gesture, I knew, from when we were younger and toddled across the shoreline, Sora Kairi Riku, her in the middle and me protecting her because she was afraid of being swept away by the waves. Sometimes if I strayed too close she'd try to pull me back, too. I guess she was worried about me also now that Sora was potentially hurt or gone. I'd like to say she didn't want to lose me, just as I didn't want to lose her and like we never wanted to lose Sora – holding onto that fact as I held onto her hand in return was good enough for me.

We both stood, sharing mutual punctuality and understanding, and veered off in the direction of the Secret Place at a brisk walk. Luckily it was less than a minute away, but I felt we had already wasted too much time and ended up breaking up my stride into a jog. The hole in the wall loomed nearer, and as we grew closer, I saw no one there.

No Sora. No cloaked, shadowy figure.

An icy shower of dismay slid down my spine, but I reminded myself that I shouldn't be disillusioned with discouragement. I held onto Kairi's hand, tight, to keep her by my side because she had begun to jerk foreward and try to break free while I stood there motionless.

"Riku, c'mon!" Her eyes turned to me, still wide with fear and determination. "Sora? Sora!" Her voice echoed into the mouth of the cave, resonated there as tremulous strings of vibration, then was taken captive by the wind.

"_Kairi? Riku?_

_Is that really you?_"

"Sora?"

I blinked at this voice of hesitant curiosity and wonderment, and realized that I had been so fully expecting my little buddy to reply that I had recreated his voice and imagined him replying to me. Was I really that desperate to know if he was not yet banished from existence?

My spoken musings went unnoticed by Kairi, who had been released from her containment while I had been unaware and was now dashing towards the small cavern's entrance. She ducked inside and disappeared out of my sight. Never once before had that dark passage reminded me of the yawning maw of a python, ready to devour whatever blissfully ignorant mouse that stepped into its mouth and crush its bones into powder. Kairi was that mouse.

A second later I heard her scream.

"Riku!"

That was enough to send me running. I swooped down through the low-hanging, narrow opening in a similar fashion to that of my shrieking friend, and found my footing on the sandy dirt path that carpeted the claustrophobic pathway rock walls. The soles of my shoes bit into the ground, vomiting up puffs of the dust that collected in this modest habitat which formed intricate designs on the natural carpet.

At first I didn't see her – my eyes had not yet adjusted to the dank darkness my surroundings carried. Not Kairi, not anything. Then I saw her, thin form molded into the far back corner of the cave as compact as she could get herself without folding herself in half. I stared at her expectantly for an explanation. Sora, had she seen him? The other – what about that? And then . . .

And then there was always the possibility of the malevolent shadows. I was guilty of spinning up images of them swarming over her slightness, contorting her into a mass of smoky black moments after her scream penetrated my ears. I couldn't rid the disturbing image from my mind, so I stepped foreward as if to envelope her with my protective arms instead of convulsing shadows (though I would never actually do such thing) when I saw just that shadowy something latch onto her wrist.

She had held out her arm to me – a stark white bone in the moonlit darkness (I hadn't thought then of the irony of moonlight when it was only seven in the evening) and now it recoiled, her chin dipping to lead her eyes down at the creature who grasped her other arm. Not a scream slid off her tongue but a quiet gasp, half in surprise and half in repugnance.

If these were the guys that took Sora, there was no way I was going to let them take Kairi. No fucking way.

Hopefully before she had the time to appear frightened, I ran to the pair with a wordless yell as my train and with nothing as my weapon. Not the smartest way to go about heroic acts. My eyes scrambled around the small circular enclosure, searching for something I could use as a fender. From past experiences, my bare hands did nothing to the airy darkness that made up these buggers.

What I found was a sword. Yes, a sword – but not exactly. It was made up of one carved piece of wood, probably stolen from an old plank in the dock. Now I remembered leaving it here yesterday after I had chased Sora into the Secret Place during one of our spars he had fled from. I taught him not to give up that easily. Two minutes into the game and he was complaining of a boo-boo on his inner-elbow that I had thwacked with my misshapen board of wood.

Well, I wouldn't be giving up already. In mid-run I crouched down to pick it up, swung it over my head and sliced the atramentous ghoul's arm . . . with an oversized key.

"Huh?" The silver spine gleamed up at me dully, as if telling me to get over the unforeseen spectacle. I took its advice and shifted my body so I was between Kairi (who was now shrinking away across the stone wall) and the squirming monster and landed a finishing blow down on its head.

What shook me up more than seeing that thing seem to melt into a puddle of ink and then somehow evaporate was behind its gravesite. For once the door hadn't been the very first thing I had noticed upon coming into the hideout. The door was ajar and no longer seemed to be comprised of humble sorrel wood. It was the passage you'd find in a palace, all elegant milk marble and architectural impressions. But the flawless porcelain was veined with blue and black like a bruise, an aura that pulsed as a heart would behind the opening.

My hand trembled and I would have dropped the keyblade if I hadn't tightened by grip just then; already it was slick with sweat. I was living my nightmare.

"Riku . . ." Her voice. I marginally turned. Her arms encircled my waist; she pressed her forehead into my chest. It was an exhausted gesture, searching desperately for some sort of sturdy comfort and confidence. Nevertheless I was frozen and could not cup the back of her head like I would have wanted to do if my mind hadn't been torn between her presence and the door.

Her heart beating through our clothes, through my skin –

The swirling darkness escaping the crack in the door –

Silky, sweet-smelling hair the colour of roses –

Advancing troops of vicious shadows –

You will be the one who will open the door –

The door was already open, dammit, already broken –

The shadows were coming.

Deftly I twisted from the teenage girl's embrace and launched my weapon at a midget shadow in mid-leap, motioning for her to stay out of the way. I didn't need anymore distractions.

I ripped off a monstrosity that had climbed onto my back and flung it at the opposite wall that it hit with a _thunk_. The one that took its place ended up being impaled next to its counterpart.

They were everywhere. Every time I turned around, another had become attached onto my body. They clung with a sickening assurance that soon I would no longer be able to overpower them. Soon I'd grow tired of thrashing and their weight would make my restless limbs slushy. Soon it'd all be over and all three of us would be lost to this strange darkness. All because of a door.

The momentum of the beasts caused me to face Kairi. I believe she was yelling something at me or at the creatures attacking me (we were at such close quarters so it was difficult to tell), perhaps something along the lines of "Go away!" or "Leave him alone!" Maybe if I survived this I'd take lip-reading classes so I'd be able to figure out what she was saying. The critical thing was, she wasn't going to get herself into trouble anytime soon, and I was still fighting. For now.

It actually wasn't that hard to master the flow of this bulky object. I found myself fluidly switching positions, using muscles I never thought I had in a flexible act. It was a dance, not combat. A dance with blood and gore, sure, but a dance all the same.

The two points of the key weapon dug into the stomach of one fiend and I felt it give way. I kind of leaned foreward with it, my arms growing heavy. I couldn't give up. Then I'd never get to Sora.

It was so tempting.

"Mmm, lollipop."

My eye might have twitched.

"Lollipop lollipop."

He popped the shiny red lollipop out of his mouth, examined it for his own secret entertainment, and then slurped it once more.

"Lolli lolli lollipop."

"Stop it."

I was a sucker for suckers.

"Aw Riku, why?"

"Because it's annoying." I rolled my eyes to demonstrate and reclined back against the paopu tree, rearranging my arms to that they restrainingly folded across my chest. Sora kicked his skinny legs in reply, swinging variably with amiable ferocity while on the edge of the tree trunk.

"And immature."

"You just want my lolli." He grinned, showing off two rows of perfect teeth enameled with pink sugar as he peered teasingly at me.

I did. And I was almost ready to grab it from him since he couldn't keep it in his own damn mouth. But I didn't, because every time I thought I wanted to, I saw the sheen of his saliva all over its perfect sphere surface, flawing it, and making it suddenly so decidedly unattractive.

"You know you want my lolli."

Giving up wasn't tempting anymore when I knew I wouldn't get what I truly wanted if I gave in.

That optimistic note in mind, I swung the keyblade with renewed promise and vaporized my enemy with it. The rest simply seemed to follow suit – I wasn't quite thinking, but my mind was set, and that was on one thing: destroy. They didn't stand a chance against this machine that chopped them up into little black bits that could be mistaken as ants.

When the last was gone and the frothing mouth of the door seemed to have calmed without anymore shadows spewing from its dark depths, I turned around at the sound of a delicate cough. Kairi. What had she thought of my display of violence? Was she as freaked out as I was? Really, I didn't care. Now that it was over, I wasn't going to let her hold me down from finding Sora – all though I knew she wouldn't. She wanted to find him just as much as I did, with her and that crazy adoration of him. I wasn't blind. I figured she liked him; but that didn't mean that I didn't have a chance.

Already my thoughts were being contradicted. Hypocrisy couldn't escape me even in the direst of situations; or maybe Kairi was just a siren. She had me entrapped.

"Riku," She began, her voice low and unsure. Brave to be the first to say something.

"Don't ask." I muttered, sliding my eyes to the side where the door happened to be.

"Those . . . things . . ."

"I think they took Sora."

"I know."

Her cherry blossom pink lips moved closed for a moment, and before I could even twitch to stop her –

"I'm going with you."

"No." Came my instant response. You must understand, I didn't want her to get hurt. I could barely imagine her walking into the whirlwind void of darkness and having to face what threatening things lurked within it. Alas, standing my ground once more proved to be futile. I was stubborn, but Kairi beat me in that personality trait. Seriously, she appeared to be as harmless as a porcelain doll . . . and she was. Though there was a determined flame somewhere inside her, constantly fighting to be released whenever provoked.

My expression seemed to soften. A bit. Slightly. It was hardly noticeable. "I won't hold you back. Just promise that you'll listen to me, so nothing will get to you." If I said run, she'd better run. I needn't worry, though – Kairi was remarkably obedient.

"I promise."

I forced myself to look at the beckoning door again. I stood there, the keyblade a bent presence my side, separating Kairi from me. We gazed into the indigo-tinted blackness like captivated individuals watching fireworks. Quietly, her voice sounded beside me.

"You think Sora still has a chance, don't you?"

"I know he does." My reply was confident but still modestly put out. "He's got us, right?" I nearly smiled at Kairi just then. There was just this hopeful light in her face and regardless of all the befuddling blur of stuff that was happening, it made me feel that we all had a chance. A smile of her own replaced my failed one, and she took my hand. We faced the darkness.

And were suddenly swept up by an invisible current from under our feet, sucked into the gaping hole in the Secret Place, and tumbled off into oblivion.

**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**

**N.otes  
**_W_hoo. I'm not sure what was wrong with this chapter, so much that it made me put it off for that long. I seemed to have lost my muse for a little while. Anyway, I don't think I'll have that lack of interest problem with the next chapter. I know what I'm going to do for that one. -cackles.-  
_I_ would like to take a special, gigantic thanks to **Vixen2004** for her enormously helpful and appreciated reviews and pay her back for all the cookies she's given me. -dumps endless supply of fudge and pie over her head.- Really, I love stalkers. Very much.  
**_T_atikara **is also a faithful stalker. -poke.- Her RikuxKairi drabbles got me inspired. Go, read them. But don't forget about little ole me in the meanwhile. ;P


	4. Friends or Foes

----------------------------  
Glue & Duct tape  
Chapter** Four **. _Friends or Foes  
_-------------------

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I never expected to have a girl on top of me at the age of fifteen. Being the remotely self-conscious teen that I am, I know I am good-looking. That doesn't mean I'm not virtuous in some aspects, such as premarital sex. So when I woke up with a nest of crimson hair on my collarbone and legs more slender than mine wrapped loosely around me, I wondered what the hell happened to the promises of not throwing my life away.

The second thing I wondered was what exactly had happened last night. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't stalling at detaching Kairi from me – these thoughts came and went in less than three seconds. There hadn't even been enough time for me to jerk up and recoil like a hermit crab retreating into its shell before she stirred with a soft moan.

I saw a sliver of sapphire beneath sooty lashes before they fully opened to stare directly at my torso. "Whuh?" Slow, mangled speech slid from her lips, slurred and disoriented before her eyes jumped wide, probably the same moment she realized I was that oversized lump beneath her. Last time I checked, I wasn't some breezy hill to doze on on a balmy spring day.

Righting herself, it was now painfully noticeable that she was straddling me. My embarrassment, however, could not equal hers. While I felt a blush rise on my previously creamy cheeks, she flushed an alarming shade of red which matched her hair.

"Ohgosh! Riku!"

'Ohgosh' was right. She made that expression sound scolding, as if _I_ was the cause of these brash actions – when, clearly, she was the one on top. The girl who I had known for years whipped her leg around like she was dismounting a horse, bumping my leg with her rough manhandling and flashing a line of thigh in the process. I grunted and contemplated a flirtatious remark, but decided I was still too mystified for wisecracking my friend of the blatant opposite gender.

Now if it were Sora –

Oh, God. I don't even want to know _why_ he would be in a dominant position on me.

Or why he'd be wearing a miniskirt.

However, it was fortunate that that name had come up. It sparked some memory of what had happened – and perhaps it also explained why Kairi and I had been outrageously sprawled out across each other in a street.

Yes, street. It was dark and dank, made out of cobblestones layered with grime. If I were to scratch my fingers across the ground, my nails would probably be caked with the foul stuff. Shadows dappled the walls, casting duplicates over the unsanitary foundation that resembled hulking figures. For some reason, they made my head hurt. Not far away was a corner leading to another wing of the path, occupied by collapsed cardboard boxes stained with God-knows-what and numerous sheaves of wind-strewn newspaper. The alleyway, in a whole, reminded me more of a catacomb than what you'd find in our hometown. The boxes were coffins, the paper bones and other bodily remnants, and the disarrayed bricks on the walls were the niches that stored the corpses in.

Not a pleasant thought.

I propped myself up, leaning back against a wall and watched Kairi stand and brush herself off. Her white blouse was smudged with what appeared to be soot, so she pinpointed that yet eventually gave up with a sigh. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, she returned her attention to me, this time blush-free.

"Where are we?" Nervousness warbled in her voice as she glanced to each side, taking in the unfamiliar (and unbeautiful) scenery.

I shrugged apathetically. "The hell if I know." I didn't even remember how we had gotten here.

On cue, memories began to flood back into my bewildered mind.

"_I'm going with you."_

"_I won't hold you back."_

"_I promise."_

She seemed to see what registered in my eyes. "You remember now, don't you? We're here to find Sora." The last part was said quietly, as if in reserved mourning for what she thought may already be lost.

"Like I said, Kairi, he still has a chance. If that door led us here, then there had to be a good reason behind it." That's right, the door. The door _I_ was supposed to open. The persistence of this intuition in my dreams had been proven incorrect. Though it was somewhat of a relief that I didn't have to touch the adjacent handle for the door to oblivion after all, gloves on or no, I couldn't help but feel an approaching sense of doom.

And I _never _had that feeling before.

The door only complicated matters. Currently, we had to discover where we were and who could help us get to Sora. At least, that's probably what Kairi was thinking. I'm a male. I don't need help or have to ask for directions. Calm, cool, and collected – that was me. Kairi would probably lead me to the nearest sleazy pub or whatever obscenities this place housed the first chance she got.

"Riku! Get up and let's go find somebody who can help us."

I'm also never wrong.

I didn't want to get up. I was brought back to earlier – maybe the day before for all I knew. She tried to summon me up with my name, but to no avail. I had always scouted for some kind of action in my life, and now that I was presented with some, all I wanted to do was crawl up in a little hole and hide under a rock.

I was sinking deeper into an oblique state of mind. This was how I was when something kept me up at night. This was how I was now. Mental overload, maybe. Unresponsive and disconnected from everything around me, I focused on all the things that had occurred to me in the past week; a million thoughts spinning around my brain then settling into a constricting death lock. Returning to what I thought was the origin of all this, I saw myself, a five year-old once more, standing in the what once was spacious cavern of the Secret Place.

Sora was there.

"Hey Riku, what's that?"

"I don't know. It looks like a door to me."

"Wicked! I wonder where it goes to."

"Probably just to the other island."

"Want to find out?"

"Maybe later. Have you met that new girl yet?"

Why hadn't I been so inclined to see what was behind it then? Even Sora was more enthusiastic about it than I was – of course; he was the king of drama.

"Riku."

Poke.

"Riku, are you awake?"

Jab.

"Riku!"

I noted a hint of desperation in her voice, and once more my mind returned to when she had tried to rouse me when I was sleeping on the beach.

My eyelids fluttered closed. I suddenly realized how tired I really was. So very tired. Had we not just been sleeping? I couldn't remember.

"Where are we again, Kairi?" I could barely detect my own murmur.

"Riku . . . ?" Her voice wavered, now steadily growing more and unsure. She was scared. I didn't blame her. But was she scared for me or for her or for us?

Drudgingly, I dragged myself up in a more erect sitting position. A grunt escaped my throat in revulsion as I had to dig the heels of my hands onto the squalid cobblestones in order to do so. I forced myself and my mind on the matter at hand. _Sora. Right. Must get to Sora. Must find him and then proceed on saving him. Yes. _I made the task sound horribly robotic. It wasn't. In fact, it was harder than I had originally thought it would be (or lacked thinking) as we had rushed towards the Secret Place.

"Don't worry about me," I retorted and finally stood up, wriggling my shoulders to free the crick that snuggled up close to my neck.

Kairi was the thread against the background of the shadowed street, adumbrating my sanity. Lingering hesitantly a few feet away, she waited until I wasn't looking at her to pad over and slip her small hand into mine once more. This time I hardly twitched in surprise.

We walked the short path of the alleyway like that, placidly hand in hand. The minute we turned the foreboding corner that led us to our release from the glum prison, we stumbled upon a town square that all but equaled its dark atmosphere. I blinked, eyes struggling to adjust with the dim street lights as the only source of brilliance.

My vision landed on a plain wooden sign with large, somewhat ragged block letters engraved into its melancholy façade.

WELCOME TO TRAVERSE TOWN.

"What's with this place?" I asked to no one in particular.

"It's almost . . . spooky," Kairi commented, fishing her gaze around the plaza.

"Hello!"

Chipper vocals strung together in a benign greet wasn't something I had been expecting. My head turned back and forth, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice, couldn't, and had to do a double take. That's when I felt a tug on my hand and glanced at Kairi, who in turn glanced down near my feet and pointed at a small white duck wearing a green T-shirt.

She seemed as dumbstruck as I was. I just stared. The redhead, being the more cordial of the two, artfully thrust her elbow into my ribs and responded to the talking duck. It was freakier than an especially aggressive shadow.

"Hello."

"Uh, hi . . ." I was about to ask what kind of steroids this thing was on, something that would amuse only myself (whenever I tried to be funny, I tended to be the only one who laughed at my jokes) when Kairi swiftly interjected before I was considered a fool by this little duckling. Like I cared.

"I'm Kairi, and this is Riku. We're new around here; could you maybe tell us where we are . . . ?"

This kid was all smiles. If you could smile with a goldenrod beak. It opened to say something, when something else caught its eye.

"Ah!" Yelled the duck. Or quacked.

I followed its gaze and saw one of my friends dancing in the pool of harsh light a lantern made. Oh, yeah, a shadow. Its orb-like eyes seemed to absorb the light and change it into something much colder and more alien than its original luminance.

Were they here, too, or had they followed us? I could've smacked my forehead at this impulsive inquiry. Of course they were. We had gone through the door that seemed to spawn these nightmares.

It quivered grotesquely, as if its limbs were made out of jelly. Watching the beast made me scowl and feel a familiar gnawing dislike for itself and its kind.

"Dammit." I growled and let go of Kairi's hand so the keyblade could appear. By her telltale blue eyes widening in fear, she was trying very hard to remain halcyon and not back away.

But to my miscalculation, the shadow vibrated once more and then shuffled off into the corner from whence we came and disappeared. As did the keyblade, unneeded after all. I noticed that the duck youth had vanished also. Chicken.

Wait, wrong bird.

I would have released my hostility if not for what happened next. From behind I heard Kairi shout, "Watch out!" and twisted my body around to see a massive blade just inches from my face.

I had begun to put my arms up in a clumsy block that wouldn't mean squat for my self-defense, but that was what saved me from gaining a concussion. The silver sliced through my gloved hand and cut into my palm, digging itself deeper as I pushed on it. Rivulets of scarlet rapidly traced the veins of my arm. I bent my leg at the knee and kicked out with it, causing the attacker to back off. Shit, this wasn't worth it.

There was barely enough time for me to glance down at my hand to see the skin around my wound flayed in the middle, a river of blood, showing the meat beneath the layer of lighter skin. I fought my pain like I fought my opponent; efficiently.

But what _was_ this? Like I said before, something was up with this town. First I woke up in a sinister alleyway with Kairi on my lap, then passed through a stage of nausea, was greeted by a macabre sign and a deranged duck, and saw one of the monsters from my nightmares. Now some guy was beating me up. I didn't get beaten up. I beat up other people.

I folded my good hand up into a balled fist, ready to sucker punch the assailant when I remembered my keyblade.

He was a tall young man who was adorned mainly in sable leather, long brown hair hanging in his eyes. He was very still as he gripped his four-foot long weapon with both hands out in front of him, and though slightly awkwardly built, shuffled his feet in a graceful way that was almost feline as he quietly waited for my attack. I already disliked, maybe even hated him.

_You don't want to fuck with me, _I thought, brows knitted in potential fury, _because when you fuck with me _. . .

"You're fucking with one fucked-up motherfucker." I finished, and with that spout of confidence, lunged foreward and rammed the slender end of my keyblade that had materialized at the tone of my last obscenity into the man's chest. He couldn't even lug his giant sword up in time to counterattack. I had won.

We stood there facing each other, the brunette's stringy hair shielding his visage as he doubled over, clutching a slight gut, making it so that his expression was unreadable. My panting was that of a tiger's, and I imagined him as one, too. I saw us circling each other and wanting another bite. A little more than breathless, and with an injured hand to boot (my right one, naturally – it always has to be the one you use the most), I wasn't going to go in for another go. Despite that, the aggressive tension still burned up the oxygen in the air we were toiling to breathe.

After what seemed like years of waiting, the stranger maintained a position where he could speak.

"You're good." I glanced down again at my palm which was bleeding profusely, soaking through the glove and staining it a darker black. "I assume you've had practice." His drawling voice of dry sarcasm got on my nerves, which right now were very raw and exposed like the open skin of my hand.

"Yeah," I spat, _to my distaste. _But I couldn't help to feel proud. Being thrown into battle conflict with the shadow monsters had really helped me out.

"That's just the keyblade doing its work."

If I were Sora, I'd scrunch up my nose and try to look intimidated but only succeed on looking helplessly cute, in Kairi's opinion. Or I'd cry. Crushed as I was, I showed little reaction to his smart assed comments.

The man was motionless and expressionless, but I thought I saw a tiny pinch of a smirk on his lips. I examined the weapon he had called a keyblade. So that was what it was. Giving it a good swing, I stored that piece of information for later use.

"All right, He-Who-Knows-It-All. Why don't you tell me what my name is? Or do you not know that?"

I had almost gotten the impression that I was a prodigy of some sort, known across the world . . . or worlds. Half-expecting an accurate reply, all I received was a methodically blank stare that could have been a glare. So he didn't know it. Score two for Riku.

"It's Riku," I told him, vaguely smug.

"Leon."

"No, Riku." Amidst my impatience, I only just realized what he had meant after the words shot from my mouth. My down-turned lip did not completely conceal my embarrassment.

But I was pissed. This was the enemy and he had taken his pound of my flesh and ounce of blood. Now that we were through with physical fighting, I was still mentally hyped enough to work out my tongue.

"Right. Can I call you Lee?"

"Riku," Kairi warned from behind me. I had nearly forgotten she was there – we both had.

"How about Leah, then?" I sneered, ignoring Kairi's advice. Bet you 300 munny she was exasperatedly thinking '_Boys_!' Regardless of whatever she thought, this wasn't being immature. This was a quicker way of revenge.

Upright and over his previously winded state, the man cocked his elbow and rubbed his temples with his free hand. "Why did it choose _you_?" As if I was a fuck-up. Maybe I was. Hadn't I just admitted that a few seconds ago? I had lost Sora. That was as good as any reason to be considered as such failure.

"Aw, Leon, quit brooding!" A merry voice piped up out of nowhere, swiftly grating on my nerves and arresting my own emo predicament. I looked up to see a girl with her charcoal hair cut severely short who had just slapped Lee good-naturedly on the back. The intention of this gesture was friendly and optimistic but only caused him to appear further disgusted, now at her annoyingness rather than my pitiful show of opposition.

She was followed by another girl clad in pink and a broad bow that tied onto her Rapunzel version of a braid, and who set some distance between her and the other female like someone would when they were wary or even scared of another. I didn't blame her.

"Welcome. Riku, is it?" Her large jade eyes shifted in my general direction. My vision was getting sort of fuzzy, so it was hard to tell if she was looking at me or not. I could only assume so because she had addressed me by my name.

"And Kairi." Said person took a step foreward, determined not to be left out of this conversation. Funny, she hadn't been too willing to back me up as I had sparred.

A smile graced her lips and she tilted her head in a greeting. "I'm Aerith." Normally her voice would have sounded like soothing chimes to me, but at the moment everything's pitch was warped and particularly unlovely to my ears. Oy. Headache.

"I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie!" We all offered the short-haired chick a glance but nothing more. Mine was the weariest of them all. It could have even beat Leon's.

"I believe you've already been acquainted with Leon." Aerith clasped her hands in front of her, ignoring the interruption.

"Maybe a little _too_ acquainted." I winced, unoccupied at the time to feel a fresh surge of pain coursing through my left hand which I cradled against my stomach. Unoccupied because my mind tended to wander during conversation. Not that I was attention deficient like Sora; communication tended to bore me.

Slender hands previously lowered now flew up to cup her face. "Oh, you're hurt!" Finally someone besides me had noticed my mangled hand and arm, covered in a sleeve of slick, bright red blood. Too bright for my tastes.

"My God, look at all that _blood!_" The self-titled ninja exclaimed, leaning in for a better look. I was instantly a freak in the freak show, or an accident on the side of the road so all the rubberneckers had to slow down and scout for some gore or corpses that they knew would never be there.

"You aren't helping, Yuffie." Intoned Leon. Did I see 'Superiority' written across his face? Yes, I think I may have. The bastard took pride in causing my injury. I just wished I could punch him again.

It was far too late for that, though. I saw the world swerve in front of me like a video camera being jerked to the side, causing the picture to lag on in a potential blur of indistinguishable colour. Behold, God, I was woozy. Too much blood loss could be the only reasonable explanation.

I dubiously felt a supportive hand on my shoulder and I thought it was Kairi but I couldn't be sure. That was a second before my world turned its lights off on me and I fell back into oblivion.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

I had only fainted once before in my life. That fateful day was one of the few at the end of summer vacation, when the days seemed to grow shorter and dusk settled earlier. Sora and I's battle had driven us down to the rocky shoreline, an array of clashing blunt wooden swords. Pausing to take a breath, the next thing I knew I was whacked on the back of the skull by Sora's weapon.

"Yes!" He cheered; glad to have finally gotten me as I was forced onto my butt by the impact. On the way of landing, the back of my head my head clacked again onto something hard. This time it was rocks.

I was out with a minor concussion for five minutes. In the meantime, I only imagined Sora standing over or dancing around me. When I awoke, sand was collected at my upper-lip to form a moustache. Grains tumbled into my mouth when I propped myself up and I thought I'd pass out again by suffocation.

"Riku! Are you okay?" Sora, caught off-guard (apparently he thought I'd stay out all night), dropped to his knees and scrambled to my side, faking concern.

"I'm –"

"I swear to God you fainted!"

"I –"

Sora whipped his spiky head around. "Kairi, Riku fainted!"

"Sora, dammit –"

"Riku really fainted!"

I expected him to launch himself up and down some more a yell '_Yippee!_' I shut my mouth with a snap and growled to myself. I tentatively touched the base of my head and came back with a spot of blood on my index finger, like a single crimson tear. It glared mockingly at me with a nearly metallic brilliance caused by the sun's dying light.

Kairi walked over and, after a brief examination, went to fetch the first aid kit she stored in the island's shack. I could almost understand Sora's excitement, as I was hardly ever injured by him. I did all the damage. I sent him home with bruises and speckled in colourful cartoon band-aids all the time. Sora's mother had almost threatened me to keep away from her son, but she knew the wish was a fruitless one. We were inseparable. This victory had been well waited-out.

After Kairi dabbed the scratch at the nape of my neck with disinfectant and a cotton ball, she insisted on kissing the place that had been abraded.

"It'll make it feel better."

I was silent, and she took the hesitance as a conformance. Before her heavenly lips could brush against my skin, however, Sora shoved his big face between us and smacked his own lips on my wound.

"Dammit, Sora!" My hands turned into claws, swatting at him.

"But I was the one who did it! Shouldn't I have kissed it?"

Kairi giggled at the brunette's absent-mindedness. "Don't worry Riku; Sora's kiss is as good as mine."

I was friggen contaminated. And it wasn't true. She promised me that next time I'd get that kiss that Sora had replaced with his own. I purposely got hurt a couple more times on that happy note but it was never good enough to get that kiss.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

I was out for double the time this incidence. My eyes gradually opened and stared up at a rich burgundy canopy. So I was in a bed. Nice. It felt plush and comfortable on my aching body. How did they get me in here? Teamwork. The thought of Leon helping carrying me almost made me want to shudder if no one was watching. He probably just stayed back and let the girls struggle with my dead weight, though. That was a somewhat more pleasing conclusion.

I tried to sit up but a hand appeared on my chest and set me back down. Aerith. "You're awake." Even with a sweet smile adorning her face, I couldn't help but point out that she always stated the obvious.

"Sweet dreams?" The sour voice at the rear of the room (which I discovered was a hotel suite) could only be Leon. I closed my eyes and counted to three to keep myself from saying something much more biting back at him.

"Drink this," The girl at my bedside said, dipping a pitcher of emerald liquid to me.

"What is it, absinthe?"

"We tried to force it down your throat. It just wouldn't go."

"Aw Leah, you're too kind, looking out for my health like that." Not absinthe but potion. I downed it because I wanted to be rid of my headache. The taste was bitter and made my tongue shrivel up inside my mouth.

"We didn't have time to properly dress your wound yet. Hope you don't mind." Yuffie stood with her hands placed on her hips at the foot of the bed. She was as close as allowed; a grandiose chest blocked her knees from touching the soft mattress. I was grateful for the moat.

"I'll do it." Kairi, who lingered near Yuffie but managed to get a little closer to me than the ninja had. Her presence was the only one desired in this entire apartment.

The information tempted me to look at my hand, which had a cotton pad placed on the palm, held in place with what seemed to be Scotch tape. The blood on my arm had been washed off with a damp cloth but I bet whatever had gotten on my shirt hadn't. That's when I recognized the silken feel of the sheets against my torso and noticed that I was shirtless.

"Jesus, you took off my clothes?"

Yuffie grinned. "Leon did the honours."

"Did not." The brunette protested, but with the same lack of enthusiasm I knew him to have. Sicko.

"We had to wash them," Aerith calmly explained, though pink spots had appeared high up on her cheeks. Apparently she had been against stripping me, but also felt it was necessary. "They're in the dryer." So it was Yuffie. Now I really did shudder.

"I'm _out_ of here." My normal hand reached up to rip off the covers, and I was intending to march out of the room and find my way to wherever I needed to be (which was clearly not here), and get my tops on the way out. Two things held me back: the fact that I didn't want to be seen stripped to the waist, and Kairi was still here.

"Riku, please. These people are trying to help." Kairi said, not too loudly.

Help? They wanted to freaking molest me!

I forced myself to calm down in spite of her, letting out my pent-up breath. "What do you mean, help?"

"They told me about what was happening. About those shadow-things, No Hearts –"

"Heartless," Leon droned, a verbal eye-roll.

"And your weapon, the keyblade. Riku, they'll help us get to Sora." She flashed her oversized eyes at me like a puppy dog would, begging for a treat. Really, her mentioning of Sora was the bait. At my word, everything could happen. They all looked at me, expectant.

Hadn't I been taught countless times in school not to succumb to peer pressure? ". . . Right. Just tell me what I need to know."

It was like a heavy dampening weight lifted off the room.

"Good man!" Yuffie pumped her arm in the air in a triumphant manner.

Aerith nearly clapped her hands together, comparable to prayer. "Thank you."

"I knew he'd give in eventually." Egoistical Leon. Why didn't this guy just go hang himself to save him from embarrassment?

Kairi leaned over and awkwardly draped her arms around my neck in a hug. That was the best of all, I think (though wouldn't openly admit it).

" . . . After I get something better on my hand." Hate to spoil the fun, kiddies, but it was starting to hurt again. I was beginning to wonder if that was actually a shadow in the middle of the gauze or my vital body fluid leaking from the web of capillaries in my hand. Soon I'd find out.

"Right!" Yuffie said, hopping up from the edge of the wardrobe chest, chipper as day. Did I mention that my head was hurting again?

"I'll go get your stuff." With feline grace, Aerith slipped from her perch on a cushioned stool and walked off into the room connected to this one, Yuffie in her wake.

Mine and Kairi's gaze adverted to Leon, who was propped against the far side of the wall, muscular arms folded across his white T-shirt. We dared him to go. After a couple seconds of staring contest fun, he retreated stiffly with a 'humph.'

Kairi was the slight projection of a specter, gliding towards the wooden night stand where mummy-like wrappings lied in a pile and took a seat on the same chair Aerith had rested on. Nimbly she plucked the patch of cloth off my hand and we both inspected the wound and the back of the gauze, which had nearly soaked through with blood.

"Not a pretty sight," I commented, trying to fill the silence that was not quite uncomfortable.

"Nope." It didn't seem to unnerve her, however. Too many times she'd seen me bloodied up, I guess, and had gotten accustomed to it. I wriggled up into a sitting position against the velutinous pillows to make life easier, letting the sheets drop and gather in my lap. Too many times she'd seen me shirtless also, as we swam in the ocean back home. She set to work and I didn't try to say anything else until she was done. The feeling of her hands gently brushing against mine was like the sensual feeling of downy dove wings. I was entrapped and there was little disturbing me from my trance as I watched her cover my hand with clean ivory cloth. When her beautiful hands went still, I muttered something, thinking it wouldn't be heard.

"Don't stop."

Both our eyes rose to meet each other's, alarmingly different shades of blue. I began to raise my arm and her hands followed with it while I physically felt my heart thudding in my breastbone. I raised my hand near her lips – she allowed them to briefly touch the bend of my knuckles before she placed my hand back on the bed. I was washed over with numbness.

She breathed. The hotel room seemed to come back to life, flooding with renewed colour. The striped walls, dark chocolate and gold, blared like fire engines in the corner of my eyes. "I hope you'll listen to them, Riku." Kairi said in a low voice.

For some reason, my mood hurtled into abjection. Or maybe just bitchy. "Whatever they have to say, better be good."

She paused, drawing in her lower lip, as if I had inflicted pain onto her. I didn't bother think over what I had said because I had meant it. If they didn't have any helpful advice that would aid me in reaching Sora, then they'd pay dearly for wasting my time; for wasting his time.

She shook her head lightly, sadly. "I miss Sora." The statement hung in the air, vulnerable and longing to not be alone. I just sat there, looking at her without truly seeing her.

The summer before my father died was another summer of miss; that was when Sora's parents thought it'd be a grand idea to take the kid skiing. Kairi and I saw him off the morning he was going to take a plane up north to some place much colder than our mild sea-surrounded island, and we laughed at how bundled up the brunette was. The spikes protruding from around his ears were matted down by earmuffs, and at least two coats were clamped onto his figure, making him look like a marshmallow, or maybe even a badly dressed Eskimo. He had waddled around in circles before finally falling onto his rump on the sand and staring up at us, coffee-coloured lower lip crawling out in a pout. "What, it's going to be cold!"

"Aw Sora, we'll miss you," Kairi proclaimed after a chuckle, and squatted down to hug him (which proved to be somewhat difficult, as his jackets got in the way). I was surprised to see tears standing out in her cobalt eyes.

I made a sound in the back of my throat, clearing the lump that had begun to form there. "It'll be lame without you. I won't have anyone to pulverize."

"You'll have Tidus."

"You know it's not the same." We stared at each other solemnly, until Sora broke out in a smile.

"I'll show you my frostbite when I get back."

"Gross. Get out of here," I shoved him back into the sand and leapt onto my paopu tree, not bothering to watch him retreat to where his parents were waiting. It was a good idea not to, because then I didn't repeat the image of him leaving me over and over again throughout that tenebrous summer without him.

After some time of staring at my bandaged hand, Kairi got up and drifted towards the door. Before it opened, I made sure I said, "I do too."

Yuffie walked in, nearly hitting the redhead who was positioned near the door. "Aerith's got your stuff," She declared, before noticing Kairi. "Oh shit, Kai, didn't see ya there." Handing her an apologetic smile, she turned her attention back to me. Under her breath, she whistled.

"Remind yourself who this is, Yuffie," Aerith proclaimed subtly as she suddenly materialized through the doorway like an apparition. In her arms was a mass of canary yellow and black – my shirt. Upon handing them to me, I snatched them to my bare chest, Yuffie's hungry gaze seeming to penetrate my skin.

"Oh, yeah. The Keyblade Master. Huhh, that doesn't mean I'm not able to look at him, Aerith!"

The Keyblade Master? I let it slide. Ask questions later, get dressed (and away from Yuffie) now. Heading off towards the small bathroom, I tried to give the ninja a wide berth but she had planted herself right near the door. She smirked deviously at me as I stalked past her. Once I got inside, I slammed the bathroom door and locked it. Safe, unless she had a lock picker on her person. Why would I not be surprised if she did?

Only until after I had slipped the shirt over my head did I scan the lavatory. Everything was bleached white so that it nearly glowed. The typical hotel bathroom. Even paying good munny for a two-roomed suite didn't change the place where you washed, shit, and pissed. I stared at myself before the tall mirror that reached the ceiling, seeing my face that was smudged with soot and dirt. Deciding to wash my face to finally make myself presentable, I gripped the faucet and splashed icy cold water on my visage, clearing away the grime, so of which was probably day-old.

Now I had to face the door again. No kidding – I was afraid Yuffie might have her ear pressed to it, listening. Building up a significant amount of courage, I peeked around the corner to see people lounging on chairs, the bed, and walls. Yuffie was on the bed. My sigh of relief was inaudible but not inconspicuous.

I chose to shift around the hallway's bend and stand against the wall opposite of Leon.

"Do you think this is your world?" The inquiry didn't quite catch me off-guard. I knew that when Kairi and I were sucked into that foreboding gateway to Traverse Town that Toto, we weren't in Kansas anymore.

I shook my head.

"Good. So you aren't disillusioned, it isn't. You see, there are many worlds . . ." And so Leon droned on, blah blah blah blah, and my eyes began to glaze as I watched Kairi, who was watching me.

"Riku, you aren't listening to me." My chin tilted in the man's direction and my eyes narrowed.

"You're right. I'm not."

"You said –"

"Forget what I said. How the hell will this crap help us any?"

"Riku!" Kairi interjected, "Don't you know? Sora may be in one of the other worlds! We have to get to them first in order to get to Sora!"

I held her gaze, which was nearly in tears. I blew out the air in my cheeks. "Go on."

Leon shifted positions slightly against the wall. "Right. That weapon of yours?" As though it had heard itself being mentioned, the oversized key appeared in my hand. "It's what brings the monsters, called Heartless, to the worlds. It wasn't supposed to be this way, originally – people weren't supposed to know about the other dimensions out there. But now they do."

Whoopee. "You make it sound like it's my fault." _I_ hadn't brought the Heartless to Destiny Islands. Or had I? Dammit.

"It isn't," Piped in Yuffie, "The Heartless want people's hearts. They just go wherever the keyblade goes."

"And it's with me." I looked down at the key that had already slaughtered God knows how many of those shadow creatures. I didn't ask for any of this. It was all starting to be a little unfair to me – or maybe a lot unfair.

"It's getting late," Commented Leon. "We should stop for the night, and then tomorrow . . ."

"Tomorrow you start your journey," Aerith finished. It was settled, or so it seemed.

"I just want to find Sora." I didn't want these Heartless getting in my way.

"And go back home?" Questioned the martial arts pro, almost sympathetically.

"If I can bring him back, yeah." Really, I didn't miss Destiny Islands yet. I knew Sora did.

"You can do that. After you get rid of the Heartless." Leon, of course, had no sympathy. Fine. I didn't want it.

"Come on, Riku. You need to meet someone else." Oh, boy. Hadn't I already been acquainted with far too many colourful characters for the day? The leather-clad figure began to walk towards the door, leaving me in the dust. Grudgingly I followed him out into the hallway, floored with a ruby rug that had intricate patterns sewn into the design. Walking at his heels I felt like his subordinate, and walking side-by-side we'd be more like buddies. I was neither. I ended up dragging back so it'd be clear to any passerby that I was with this guy unwillingly. Maybe they'd file a report for kidnapping. Just maybe. It wasn't too much for someone like me to hope for.

We didn't see anyone on the way out, however. He opened the double-door exit to the complex, not holding it open for me. I wasn't a lady. I shoved the door to swing wide, but with my bad hand.

"Fuck." Expelled from partial pain and dread, my voice stung two new pairs of ears.

"Gawrsh, Donald, he's a potty mouth."

"Awwwwrgh."

The unintelligible grumble came from the planar golden beak of a duck clothed in what appeared to be a sailor's suit. No pants. He could have been the father of the duck . . . ling, I had encountered earlier. The one who was offended by my language was a tall black dog, or maybe an otter. He, at least, was fully dressed.

I pinned my back against the closed doors, motivated to escape back through them and seek refuge in an abandoned room.

Instead I switched my accusatory glare to Leon, who was standing amongst the gawking duo.

"This is Donald and Goofy. They were sent by the king and are going to accompany you on your travels," Leon quickly explained, for once, as if that'd slow me down in socking him.

"Hyuck, that's right! And you're . . . ?" The dog's – Goofy, what a fitting name – muzzle hung agape. I swear there was drool built up in the corner of his mouth.

My keyblade appeared in my hand in a scintillation of light.

"The keyyyyy!" Donald fawned in his scratchy voice, gasping and splaying his feathered hands wide. He nearly squealed.

I figured this torture would never end; might as well deflect some of it.

"Want to see it?" I asked, and like a good sport, proffered the golden and silver blade.

The water-preferring bird cackled, preparing to dive in and gobble up the blade. Sweet Jesus, these animals were one day going to take over the world.

"Too bad." I feinted, whapping the end of the keyblade across Donald's forehead. He plopped to the ground on his plumaged rump and "Awwwwrgh"'ed again.

"He ain't very nice, either," Goofy observed.

I heard snickering, and caught a glimpse of Leon covering his mouth with a gloved hand, attempting to stifle it. Oh yeah. Very badass, Lee.

Now recovering from his bump, Donald was out for blood. A flame of anger replaced the greedy glint in his eyes, and I held the blade steady. "Get any ideas, duck, and you're a done tom turkey," I snarled. Not like I actually thought he could do any damage. I just liked the feeling of being intimidating. It was like I was the guy with the gun. I was in power.

"Well . . . sir, we'll be waitin' for you tomorrow morn' at our ship. Come to the front gates if you will – that's where it's parked." Goofy gawked, placing a restraining hand on Donald's shoulder.

Like I'd go with those two 'tards. I'd rather fly across the worlds with Leon.

On second thought, that was arguable.

"I'm Riku." I held out my encased hand, pretending nothing happened at all. Bad idea – what if the duck thought he could get revenge by squeezing too hard? He just stared at it and I quickly withdrew.

"We're going to go get some supplies . . ." The muttering Donald waddled off with the awry Goofy and disappeared into a shop flanked by neon lights.

Unbelievable. "I'm not going with them."

Leon spared me a quirk of his brow. "You don't really have a choice."

He turned a corner. I followed. My shoes clacked annoyingly on the cobbled street.

"Where are we going now? More friends to make?"

"I thought maybe you'd be thirsty."

I could think of many dirty things to go along with that. Instead of replying with my originally intended 'What the fuck,' I kept my mouth shut and soon we arrived at what looked like a bar. Well, of course it was. A pretty lady stood outside of it, wearing a sage dress made out of light material that clung to her voluptuous hips and complimented her thick yellow hair. "Hullo, Leon," She greeted him in a husky tone, thwarting me as she directed all her attention to the brunette. I didn't particularly feel left out. I wasn't looking for women ten years my senior to play with my hair and cajole me into going to bed with them. Leon, though . . . I eyed him vigilantly, anticipating him to fall. My hopes were extinguished when he brushed by her, barely returning her hello and stepped into the pub.

A sneer affronted her heavily-lipsticked mouth as she ripped a drag from her cigarette. "Been trying to seduce that boy for months, no luck." She glanced in my direction, as if just now noticing me. You could have cowered in her sleazy glare. "What're you lookin' at, pretty boy?"

My turn to flee.

I was greeted by more scents of smoke inside the building, which hung in the air like London fog. The whole place was dim and holding many secrets, most of the dark. Shadows that I couldn't fully make out loitered in abstract corners and tables, probably drunks. I remembered there were Heartless inhabiting this town, and this hangout was as good as any alleyway for them to be lurking. Calling up my weapon, I held it tightly at my side like a child clung to a teddy bear in bed, like it'd keep away the monsters. My refuge. I figured there were guys in here with knives strapped to their wrists and shanks stuffed into their waistbands, anyway, so my weapon would be accepted.

Leon was sitting languorously at the bar, long legs stretched out over at least two other stools, a bottle of beer in his hand. Reluctant (though not showing it), I picked a chair to sit on by his boots. They were far from immaculate; dogshit was caked on the bottom of them. Pleasant view.

Another beer appeared by his hand – he flung it across the surface of the mahogany bar, and it coasted into my reach. I stared at him, uncomprehending.

"Everyone needs a break. Drink's on me."

Damn. I had never drunken before. Except for that one time, when Sora and I snuck into the refrigerator and stolen my mom's wine cooler . . .

"This is sweeeeeeet!" My best friend hurrahed, holding the slender bottle above his head and then falling back against the couch. I thought I heard snoring. Knocked out after less than a pint. I had had to carry him back to my bed because I needed a place where I could keep him behind a door. I slept on the friggen couch that night. I was that self-sacrificing of a friend.

So, I had never had a sip. I had dared Sora to do so before me and after he was unconscious, it lost its glamour. Besides, when he woke up, he woke up with a headache. Hung over, too. Jeesh, what a softie.

"Right. You're only fifteen." Leon was kind enough to point out, but his tone was condescending as he looked down at me. This guy didn't look much older. Maybe it was the oily hair that made me guesstimate a couple years.

I grabbed the bottle around its neck and popped off the top in a sign of acquittal. Through the mist, I saw a glimmer of a smirk.

"To celebrate the Keyblade Master," He mocked, and we clacked glasses while watching each other intensively.

I took a big-ass swig and instantly regretted it. Trying to look tough didn't always get you far when you're faking. The amber liquid swished over my tongue and down my throat, burning it. I coughed, almost had to pound my breast, and squeezed my eyes shut, but it could have passed for random allergies. Leon witnessed the theatrics all in good cheer. I now hated him more.

"Problem?"

"P-Piss off," I coughed, swallowing the dryness in my mouth.

"Leon! Riku!" A frantic voice caused us both to stop focusing on my gag attack. Aerith was running into the bar, trailed by Yuffie. How she got in the lead, I'm not sure, as the sight of the ninja's athletic legs and Aerith's dress were quite contradicting. "It's Kairi. She's gone!"

Oh. Hell. Looking at the distraught Aerith and befuddled Yuffie, I thought, never trust a girl to do a job.

"Gone?" Leon surmised, voice languid. Damn him. I, on the other hand, was temporarily struck speechless.

"The Heartless," Yuffie panted, her hands placed on her knees, "They got into the hotel and we tried to keep them away. But there were too many of them."

"We left Kairi in the room, and when we came back, she wasn't there." Aerith concluded.

I suppose this news caused me to fall into another phase of narcosis. I still could think; just not act. Dammit! Why did this shit have to happen to me? I didn't ask for Sora to be stolen away from me, and now Kairi. I didn't want the keyblade in my possession. Quite clearly, I was irresponsible for the job.

No wonder you heard of so many wives leaving their alcoholic husbands.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

We didn't find her. It was late and we searched all over town, battling whatever Heartless came in our way, and we didn't find her. She was long gone. But gone where? Was she safe? Was Sora?

No. The Heartless had gotten both of them. And I had become fairly and well acquainted with these buggers in the past month, especially the past two days. If you were in their clutches, you weren't safe.

When the moon was a spidery gossamer in the midnight sky Leon suggested that we get some rest and resume searching tomorrow. I didn't want to comply – I wanted to keep on looking for my two friends, the last of humanity I could really relate to at the moment. I would go on without food and sleep and water and waste away to nothing before I'd give in and give up.

I stayed in bed thinking, unable to drift off. It suddenly dawned on me how truly messed up everything was. The last forty-two hours had been pretty weird, and it was guaranteed that it'd only get weirder. Was this our fate, or an obscured destiny? It was up to me, the Keyblade Wielder, to put our lives back together again because this wasn't the way it was supposed to be, just not the way it was supposed to go. It brought my mind back to when we were younger, and Sora had accidentally broken Kairi's charm made out of Thalassa shells. It had once resembled a star-shaped paopu fruit, but now lied on the earth in indistinguishable fragments.

"I told you not to put it in your back pocket, Sora."

"I forgot about it when I sat down!"

"Kairi didn't want you to forget." He had brought it to me at my house with a worried expression plastered on his brown face. Pleading.

"Can you fix it?"

I took a breath and examined the wreckage. "Maybe," I answered truthfully, and he followed me into the living room and waited while I gathered up materials.

"This is all we have." I dumped a roll of duct tape and Elmer's school glue onto the floor.

"That's fine, we can make it work," Sora replied hastily, digging into the scene of the crime and slopping bead of glue onto the jagged edges of the shells. He tried to poke two fragments together but they didn't match.

"Here, like this," I reached over and tore off a good strand of tape and wrapped it around the figure. It began to lose its shape.

"No, that's not right!"

"How would you know, dumbo? You didn't even remember it was up your butt!"

"Riku!" Sora gasped, then laughed. I laughed with him. We were getting stressed out, trying to make it good for Kairi.

When we presented it to her an hour later, she considered it at first shocking, and then agreed on it being a laughable matter. She nearly had to stand up on her tip-toes to put her arms around us in an embrace.

"You know, whatever you two do is always good enough." She whispered in our ears, as if she had expected no more.

If I had to resort to just glue and duct tape to solve this puzzle again, then so be it. I couldn't do anything about what material I used, just so long as it was efficient.

With Leon's light snoring on the sofa guiding me towards the door, I stepped out into the hallway and left the hotel. I walked the deserted streets towards the huge front gate where Goofy had informed me some sort of 'ship' was docked, and I only assumed it could get me to other worlds. That was where I needed to be; not here. And I needed to do this alone.

Slowly, the heavy doors creaked open and hissed shut as I stood on the other side of them seconds later. I faced what looked like a space ship, vibrantly hued but toned down in the darkness. Somehow I managed to get inside it and started it up.

I was heading for the stars.

I was going to find Sora and Kairi.

**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**

**N.otes  
**_T_his equals crack. It's what you get when you read too much _Anita Blake_. Bitchy Riku!


	5. Not So Wonderful Land

----------------------------  
Glue & Duct tape  
Chapter** Five **. _Not So Wonderful Land  
_-------------------

**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**

I miss her.

I was sitting there, waiting for the truth to smack me in the face, and I didn't fully realize it until I was just beginning to settle (or trying to, anyway) into the rather uncomfortable metal seating accommodations. My chair reminded me of one you'd find in an airliner – no leg room.

Shifting with a slight frown tugging at my lips, I searched the cockpit for some kind of relief. An array of control panels like pews in a church sanctuary were splayed before me as an offering, alight with vibrant neon hues. Regardless of the surplus of apparatuses, it was still a simple task to start the vessel up. Hit the giant red button that said 'POWER.' It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Even Sora would've gotten it.

I guess you could say all those glowing keys reminded me of Kairi. Oh, God, I know – how pathetic. She was always so happy and optimistic, but ever since two days ago she hadn't been. Looking at those nodes that danced red, green, and blue, light reflected in my aquamarine eyes caused me to slip further into my depressing illusion of miserable hopelessness, which in turn caused me to deplore my pitiable feelings. I just wanted to see her smile again. Not her having tears streaming down her cheeks, or the worst option – not seeing her at all.

This was what was unfortunately taking place.

My hand slammed down on the console to try and clear my mind, or to simply release my frustration. It was the wrong hand to abuse. I groaned, praying the blood wouldn't start flowing all over the keyboard. That would be another wonderful addition of mood-spoiling, a sport in which I did not particularly fancy but was enduring it with as much courageous composure as possible. When I did not see any change of colour that would signify the leaking of bodily fluids within the white hand-wrap, I leaned back in my chair and tried my hardest to relax. First, I drew attention to the muscles in my shoulders and wrung out the knots by rolling them methodically: three times backwords, thrice forewords. Pinning my eyes shut, I bent my neck and heard a satisfying crack.

To be thoroughly blunt as I usually am, now that I was behind the wheel (was there even one?), I felt like nothing more than to sleep. Not a good idea. I didn't think this thing was hi-tech enough to steer itself to . . . wherever.

Oh yeah. I didn't know where the heck I was going. Sure, you'd say, Wherever Sora and Kairi are, of course! It wasn't that simple or easy. Sora had been whooshed into a doorway, and Kairi . . . had abandoned me. The snitch! I was never going to help her make a soufflé again once we return to the islands.

Yes, that's right. I was a master chef. Blame my mother. She was always in the kitchen when I was younger and forced me to pour over recipes when I could barely read (and the chicken scratch on the faded note cards weren't exactly aiding my learning process) and perform various shows of child labour. My dad liked big dinners, so she was obliged to comply. He also liked cookies.

"Hi Riku! Sora!"

The fact that Kairi was in my kitchen did not surprise me. It was the fact that she was actually _doing_ something in it. After greeting us with geniality, she spun around to open the oven door, and a smokescreen curled out from its containment and formed a dismal grey cloud around her head. She covered her mouth with the oven mitt and coughed into it, a harsher, grating sound that wasn't normal when you merely got a whiff of singed food.

I slung my backpack onto the floor and walked over to her, Sora following behind before something suddenly caught his ill-divided attention and sent him diving towards the round table. Most likely it was something shiny.

"Kai, you're sick. Here – let me." With a hacking gratitude, she let me take the pan she had pulled out from the furnace, hands defended by ivy-patterned hot pad armour. She had stayed home from school due to her sickness, and her absence had been missed. The teachers loved her and called her name hopefully at least a dozen times while taking roll.

Like in math class, for instance.

"Koiru.

"Koiru.

"Koiru.

"Kairi Koiru.

"Anyone?

"Anyone?"

And such as in art.

"Riku Akira."

"Yeah."

"Sora Hiraku?"

"Present!"

"Selphie Imiri."

"Here!" Then she returned to looking at herself in a compact mirror while fastidiously drawing emo tears on her face with charcoal.

"Oh Miss P?" Sora chirped amongst the grumble of affirmatives from the students. I glanced wearily across the table at him; he who was practically leaping out of his seat in all his anxious glory.

"Tidus Kalamani . . ."

"Whathuh?"

"Asleep again, Mr. Kalamani?"

"Oh, yes ma'am . . . uh, no ma'am!"

"Miss Pelini!"

She glanced up from her paper, but not at the hyperactive brunette. "Wakka Keru?"

"Ya?"

"Oh Miss P – !"

As quietly as possible, I lowered my head so that it connected with the desk. Selphie offered me a quirked eyebrow and poked her girlfriend in the arm, giggling.

"Riku! Pay attention."

That was when Sora combusted.

"MissPeliniKairi'snothere –"

My head remained firmly attached to the cool, hard surface of the desk.

"She'sSICK –"

"Mr. Akira, that'll be a detention," Miss Pelini crisply noted, walking back to her desk, high heels clacking prissily on the tiled floor.

"Oh, and Kairi Koiru is absent. Of course," She added dryly, passing me a translucent pink slip of paper across the desk and leaving Sora to join me in the head-desk communion.

I suppose she sought refuge from her loneliness in the warm haven of my kitchen. In turn, I felt charmed.

Kairi plopped down in the wooden chair next to Sora, her coughing spasm finally subsiding. My friend stared at her for a moment before inevitably opening his huge flapper. I inwardly d'oh'd comparably to Homer Simpson.

"God, Kai, you're really sick. I mean, you're like coughing everywhere. Like my cat when he has a hairball. Mr. McMuffles doesn't throw up on cookies, though, but there was that one time . . ." The brunette screwed up his face either in contemplation or disgust at a particular memory of his feline regurgitating, perhaps on his shoe.

"We don't need to know, Sora," I said cheerfully enough, dismissing his ramblings and frowning down at the scorched and misshapen cookies. It looked like the Cookie Monster or Trogdor the Burninator had gotten to them before I had. Well; you win some, you lose some. How appropriate for what had happened hours rather than years before.

"Are those _braids_ in your hair, Riku?"

Kairi was staring raptly at the back of my head with immense interest. I fingered the area loosely – sure enough, there were three small but visible braids set in a row in my silver hair, tied by different coloured rubber bands. I lightly blushed.

"I have them too, Kairi! See?" Sora exclaimed too excitedly, leaning over so Kairi could get a good look at his feminine accessories within his gigantic spikes. She covered her mouth with her hand and this time giggled instead of coughed.

"Did you two do that during your 'male bonding time'?"

What an understatement. Sora and I did lots of better things when we hung out together. Like burn buildings and torture small children.

Not really. Sora would be too chicken to do any of that. He'd be the fireman and the one who rescues the screaming, traumatized victims. I'd be the arsonist.

"No. Selphie did it during health class. She claimed she was 'bored' and wanted to learn how to do It 'doggy style,' not fiber-enriched food that can be beneficial to your colon."

Sora frowned. "Selphie is dirty sometimes."

"Riku is, too," Kairi added lightly, and not knowing whether to take this as an insult or not, unconsciously jerked my hand when she began to unbraid Sora's hair while he wildly protested. I had already ripped mine out.

"No, Riku's just gay."

Now that was an insult.

I smacked my hand on the table, which pinned a few torn strands of silvery hair beneath it. "Am not! You're the one who was insisting Selphie use the _pink_ rubber bands –"

"Riku –"

"The friggen _pink_ rubber bands –"

"You two are too silly. I missed you both today."

We both stopped yelling (or at least I did) and stared at Kairi as if she was a rediscovered species.

"Why thank you, Kairi." Was what I managed to cough up.

"We missed you too." Said Sora sincerely.

I miss them both.

I quickly began to notice a sickness eating away at my stomach like bad indigestion, similar to the kind I underwent after devouring those burned and germ-riddled cookies. We all were taking turns with bathroom breaks for the next hour in my single lavatory. If I recalled correctly, Sora tossed his cookies, literally. It wasn't because I had an empty stomach, either, and the acid was doing its work at chowing down my destitute organ. I reminded myself that I hadn't eaten in the past roughly estimated forty-eight hours, and the last food that had gone down the dark abyss of my throat had been a carrot and a swig of fermented cereal. Hey, I liked carrots. And contrary to popular belief, they did _not_ turn you into a sickish orange colour. I've been eating them since Kindergarten and I still have perfectly porcelain clear skin. The beer I could have passed on. I was beginning to think it was getting to my head and frying numerous critical brain cells with its degenerating alcohol. How much had I drunken anyway; one percent?

My calculating and brooding thoughts were interrupted by a muffled 'thump' coming from the main area of the aircraft. What the hell was that – space matter? Had an asteroid hit the ship and I was going to drop millions of miles through the galaxy until I crashed into a planet (by then I'd be reduced to a compressed, swirling fireball)? Was I over-exaggerating and hearing things? Probably. That assured me to erase my embarrassing jumpiness by turning back around and attempting to doze off in my chair. I figured the spaceship could fly itself, after all, since it hadn't begun malfunctioning yet. If all my dreams came true, then it would be programmed on a set path and lead me to Sora and Kairi. By the time I woke up, they'd be waiting outside for me to open the door and let them in. Ah, bliss.

"Hey . . . why does it feel like we're . . . moving?"

"Moving? _Whaaaaaaa_?"

Eye that had previously been shut in retirement flew open and I stared straight ahead at the darkened glass, petrified. My God, this ship was haunted. But I knew that slow voice and the scratchy one from anywhere. They were, unfortunately, unmistakable.

"Fsghdkohdejolsnjws! What the heck is going ON?!"

This outburst was followed by a succession of cluttering and banging as if someone were tripping over a plethora of pots and pans. Undoubtedly that was what was happening, because a second later, Donald Duck stumbled through the adjacent door with a stainless steel frying pan flying past his webbed foot. He was followed by a lanky figure that cast a melancholy shadow on the duck's ivory feathers.

I think I would have preferred ghosts.

"What are you doing here?!" The poultry demanded, his goldenrod jaws clacking with ferociousness. The scary effect was ruined, however, on the account of an absence of teeth. Obviously, he had forgotten my threat of frying him for Thanksgiving dinner. At the moment, the plan sounded indeed a good one.

"What are YOU doing here?" I barked back, showing off _my_ teeth. "I thought you were staying at the hotel!" Never had I guessed to bother with checking the back for the royal's two lackeys. Why should I have done so? They were supposed to be tucked safely in their starched beds light years away, asleep and not badgering me.

"Well hiya, Riku." Goofy said bravely, late on the matter yet impossibly placid. These two were incredible. Incredibly irritating.

"We _were_," Began Donald, but he closed his beak (thankfully) and seemed too overcome with bottled up frustration to continue explaining themselves. He really needed to let that go. Then again, look who was talking. I felt like I could punch something right now – preferably something mutant and white.

". . . Yuffie sorta, well uh, sorta – gosh, she _scared_ us, y'know?" Goofy finished for him, and between the stalling and stuttering, I sympathized with them. At least we shared some common ground, though I wasn't the one who was a talking animal. I knew all too well that I was dreading waking up to Yuffie standing over me with a maniac grin on her face in that hotel room.

"At least we can get a head start now, I guess."

I sank in my seat. The realization hit home hard. I was stuck with these guys after waking up in the dead of the night in order to escape them.

Sometimes, my luck literally sucked.

". . . I'm going to bed," I grumbled, rising from my seat and brushing past Donald like a puff of hot air. God, I hoped they had beds. Big ones. In separate rooms. If I heard Our Lovable Goof call from behind "Oh, we're sharing beds, you know," I think I'd scream.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

I was going to open a portal with my hand. Yippee; so technology was up-to-date. However, it wanted to scan the hand that was bandaged and therefore awkwardly lumpy, distorting the process of entrance. The computer bleeped at my struggles.

"Access denied."

I firmly slid my hand further across the glowing green screen paneling the wall, readjusting its position for another hopefully successful try.

"Access denied."

"Come on."

"Access denied," It calmly repeated.

"Shit." It hadn't occurred to me until the third try (three times's the charm, right?) that I probably needed to be registered to this ship in order for the door to open, and that my palm's reading wouldn't be stored in the database.

A divided wing appeared where my hand had been, and I jumped back in surprise. The door slid open and glaring up at me by my side was Donald. I offered him a twitch of my lips, mocking an innocent smile, before practically leaping into the small dormitory. The door slid shut with a reassuring click.

I found myself in a small, grey compartment, the ceiling low and the walls lined with slender metal tubing, purpose unknown. For all I could guess, it was for decoration. Little chips of chartreuse lights were attached to these interesting tapestries, glittering like techno stars. A slice of rectangle was my bed, clad in dark blue sheets set into more rigid steel. Inwardly, I winced. It'd have to do. How long would I be able to sleep anyway? We'd probably be at our first stop soon, and then I could go kick some Heartless ass.

Regardless, I felt my knees sink into the mattress (which was actually quite buoyant) and lowered my aching body down onto it. I pulled my pillow into an embrace and pretended it was Kairi, and henceforth drifted into oblivion.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

I dreamt. Remembered might be a better word, if you can visit your memories in dreamland.

A steaming tray of cookies would be my gift for my father the night he came home from his trip. Sugar cookies, since he didn't like the chocolate chips. "Too sugary," He'd say, followed by a short staccato laugh of irony. I never understood that – I was too young to so it simply baffled me how a few measly flecks of chocolate could make a _sugar_ cookie too sweet. Sometimes I just didn't get my father's attempts at jokes – perhaps because they appeared in my life as rarely as he did. I suppose that I inherited his trait of self-humorous satisfaction.

Sitting quietly at the dinner table, it was proving to be quite difficult to contain my excitement. Finally, I'd gain his approval. Finally. But the cookies were dessert and it had to be a surprise. Dad was only barely finishing up his meal. So I jittered my feet, neglecting my own food with anticipation and watching my father slowly eat with an open, attentive gaze.

His fork rose in the air, gleaming silver in the pool of yellow light that separated the table from all of its inhabitants, and he parted his strong jaws either to eat or to speak. In this case, it was to speak.

To my mother, he all but grunted, "Good dinner, Lailie."

My mom; a meek, mousy sort of a woman, folded her hands neatly on her lap as she always did, which was occupied by a pristine white napkin. She pursed her thin lips in silent thanks, nearly causing them to melt away into the parchment-coloured skin.

Ultimately, I could hold back no longer.

"Dad . . . ?" My eyes watched him eagerly, soaking up his movements when he stood up from his chair, and I could see the smooth brown surface of his head. As patiently as possible, I waited for him to acknowledge my presence, which he so little did.

"Mm?" He off-handedly mused, picking up his grey suit coat from the back of his chair, and I registered instantly that his mind was on other things. On the job. Yes, always. Mustn't bother Daddy now, dear. He's doing Business.

"I baked cookies." Only after it came from my mouth did I realize how pitiful it sounded, detecting the weak tremble of hopefulness in my tone of voice. "For you," I added, as to accentuate the significance.

"That's nice," His pseudo-comment was spoken through barely parted lips, eyes still unable to reach mine. Instead they turned to my mother, ignorant once more of my barely detectable presence. "I should be going."

"Yes."

"Dad, you're leaving again?" My words slurred on a partially numbed tongue from disbelief. I stood frozen to the spot, watching my dad – my gaze of mortification and adoration never leaving his tall, nearly hulking form – but wanting to go get those cookies that were hidden behind the counter at the same time. Suddenly, I wanted to eat all of them and stuff my face with gluttony that I was certain I could receive.

His terse reply was a simple, impersonal 'yep' of affirmation.

"Where?"

At last he looked at me, and with a weary grin he replied in a hollow voice, "If I tell you, I'd have to kill you."

This threat traumatized me. I was only seven at the time and utterly oblivious. With my mouth hanging slightly agape, I was half-aware of my father departing through the kitchen door and abandoning my mother and me for another four weeks.

"Mommy, why does Dad always have to go somewhere?" My question to my mother was not cautious like the ones I directed to my father as she tucked me into bed later that night. My father had a natural aura that caused even the strongest of souls to back down and sometimes even tuck their tails between their legs in submission. At my young and peacefully non-rebellious age, that single year when every child seems to suffer a sort of whimsical calm in between the storms of needy toddler and demanding teenager, I was no exception.

"Because he's in the army, dear. Soldiers have to travel a lot." The mechanical answer left me doubtful. Now I realize that my mother was defending Daddy, as he defended where we lived. She was her own soldier, in a way. She was even vacant a lot in my life, too – just not physically.

"Why, though?" A persistent child, no matter how docile, never gives up their questions.

"It's good because he makes money doing it," She retorted, tugging at my sheets. "So I can stay here with you whenever he leaves." She finished explaining after a tense pause, and I ignored her nervous habit of straightening the covers when they were already rigid at the time and cast off what they could have meant. My mother is a simple woman; her every move is not able to be dissected. She is not composed of a thousand schemes wired together in an intricate bundle of mystery; although she keeps a lot to herself (which caused a breakdown when my father died), she is free of all hidden intentions and selfish indulgences and desires.

My father travelled often until his death, both of which I grew accustomed to. In fact, his frequent absences were what brought him to his demise.

She kissed me coldly on the forehead and my room fell under the power of the black, the darkness that drives all children's nightmares.

xxxxxx**x**xxxxxx

Donald was driving.

Oh. God.

He had a brain; that much I could prove. Granted, I had never seen the supposed miniscule amount of grey matter, and if I had the chance I'd rip it out and stomp on it to even further reduce it into compressed blobs¤.

Did he have a license? Were animals legally accepted with equal rights? In his world, I wouldn't doubt it.

I hope that I would never have to go to his world.

I stumbled drunkenly into the cockpit, unsure of what had awoken me. My mind's decision was set on the darkness that I wanted to hide from; either that or I had a killer headache and what I assumed must be a first-degree hangover. I was no sissy.

Partially hiding an enormous yawn with my hand, I blinked my iceberg eyes sleepily. I sort of wanted coffee. Caffeine was never good for my head, though – I barely got a high from it, just a measly, listless kick, and then a crashing low. Of course for Sora, the stimulant drug had a different effect. He bounced off the walls twice as hard. When he had caffeine in his body, there was one word of advice I could give: Watch out.

Suddenly, the ship lurched foreward, and I careened in the same direction and into the back of Donald's chair. Metal plus head equaled a greater migraine.

"Sorry." He sounded suspiciously unapologetic.

I unglued my face from the chair and swished my tongue across the teeth in my mouth, hoping none were broken. I already had a messed up hand – a broken face would add to my growing list of injuries.

Do I get a purple heart?

Despite my steadily increasing anger because of this unfortunate situation, I was too tired to explode with the strings of profanities rushing through my jumbled head. Instead I ignored Donald and turned slightly to Goofy, who was situated in the copilot seat.

"Are we there yet."

"Not yet, Mister Keyblade Bearer."

"It's Riku."

"Sure; whatever you say, Riku." I had a feeling he'd revert back to some other dorky title like 'Master R to the Iku' the next time he responded to me.

"How'd you like it if I called you 'Goof'?" I grunted.

"Well, that's my nickname anyway, so I guess I wouldn't really mind; hyuck!"

I stared blankly at him. Sick, sick, sick.

"Where are we going, anyway." I knelt down on the floor. More metal. It was difficult to get comfortable around this joint.

"Heh . . . it's a surprise, ain't it, Donald?"

"A surprise," The duck growled, glowering at the darkened glass before him.

"Everything's been a surprise for me lately. Most of them bad ones," I stated soberly. That earned me a curious glance from Donald.

"Well, it's the truth."

"Gosh, Riku, I know how it may seem . . ."

"No. You don't," I cut the oversized dog off. One of the things I loathed was when people _tried_ to understand your problems when they couldn't, and probably never would. "You have no idea.

"Just tell me where the hell we're going."

I glared at Donald, so defined that it was almost visible: still steely daggers suspended in midair, shooting towards their target. I hoped he felt them burning into the side of his head, but he never even returned my stare. I felt vaguely offended and clenched my unharmed fist to keep my anger further contained in a bottle that was threatening to shatter. Take it out on the Heartless, Riku, my good angel told me.

"We don't need to.

We're here." Donald said finally.

Those two words were all I needed. I leapt up a little too quickly and fought off a wave of dizziness. Righting myself, I bounded towards the door that had just jolted open, leading to the outside world.

Now I had to struggle with disorientation. My surroundings were red, green, white, and yellow. It was . . . flowery, but they weren't normal flowers I was looking out. Or 'shrooms. There were a lot of mushrooms the size of clubhouses, polka-dotted like strange ladybugs. I was beginning to wonder about that beer again, and just what side-effects the word 'hallucinogen' entailed.

I heard the light flapping of webbed feet on the metal ramp followed by the heavy thudding of giant shoes behind me.

"Gawrsh, sure is a Wonderland, huh?" Goofy commented admiringly, shielding his eyes and looking around.

"Aww, shmooey," Donald said, waving him off with a wing. "Let's just go find that queen we need to talk to."

I felt my shoulders tighten. "Yes, _let's_." The back of my nape nearly bristled with inferiority at being included in their little party. The only group I ever wanted to be included in was the one Sora, Kairi and I had. What we _originally_ had, anyway.

"Hey, Riku!"

"Where are you GOING?!"

I had broken into a sprint. I was getting away from them. Away, away, away from the obnoxious Goof and spastic Duck.

"Sure, like I'd go with you losers," I called, barely looking back. My arms, bended at the elbows, swung at my sides vigorously with each leap I took. I traversed tufts of grass that were as green as clusters of spiny emerald shards rising up from the surface of the earth and toadstools like red rubies drizzled with quartz and flecked with diamond. It was funny how this outdoor place was looking more like a subterranean rock mine than a meadow or forest – maybe it was the lack of nature I saw stuck inside of that spaceship that had me believing otherwise.

Their voices faded eventually and I considered slowing down, or even stopping. My sides were beginning to burn – a slow, steady pace, but painful nonetheless. I still wasn't used to overexerting myself: the instances when I had to fight the Heartless back home were extemporaneous.

But before I could gracefully carry out my ideal vision of a break, I tripped over a mushroom.

I cursed as I went down, face-first into the soil. To my mouth's content, I grabbed snippets of grass and dirt with my teeth and nearly choked them down (by accident, of course. I wasn't a rabbit – even if I did occasionally gnaw on a carrot or two). Mmm, my taste buds were loving my new diet.

When the _hell_ was I going to get food, anyway?

"I'm late, I'm late – ohh, I'm so _late!_" Speaking of rabbits . . . A white blur zoomed by me, zigzagging and out of control clad in a red suit and holding what seemed to be a golden pocket watch in his misshapen paw.

My first thought: _Not more oversized talking animals!_ Needless to say, I was weirded out. I suppose that I should be used to it now – I wasn't. I don't think I ever will be, either.

I stood up and brushed my knees off, attention lingering on my scuffed pants a little longer than I originally intended. Aerith should've washed these, too, if she had gotten the chance.

On second thought, that would mean me being naked in the presence of some temperamentally freakish people. Never mind. I'd have to deal with the inch of dirt smothering my clothes. It was only an inch.

"I'm late I'm late I'm LATE!" The oversized rabbit (I guess you'd call it a hare?) continued to splurge, eyes bulging from their sockets.

"Okay, okay buddy. I get it," Came my growl, startling him. He (at least I assumed it was a he because of his scant clothing) flung himself at least eight feet in the air and foreward at the sound of my voice. I held back my sarcastic applause. Was he thinking, '_Don't eat me don't eat me don't eat me_'? Though I had never tried the delicacy that was rabbit, I could turn wolf for just a day and eat this newfound company. Problem was, there was a decidedly lack of silverware in this territory.

"I could make a fork out of a tree branch," I mused aloud, and the rabbit whirled his eyes at me and began to stutter.

"Wh-what?"

"Hum?" Raising my brows, I blinked and remembered that this was, regrettably, an animal of some intelligence. A genius because of his oversized eyeglass, wouldn't you know. It would be inhumane to stone him and then roast him over an open fire. Of course, there were always exceptions – Donald was one. "Oh, nothing." My gaze snapped back away, narrowing.

"If you _say_so. Hurry up; you're making me late."

"Late for what?" It wasn't that I had any interest in this rabbit's personal stuff. I just wondered if there was some kind of civilization around here . . . and not controlled by talking animalia.

"The Queen! The Queen's meeting!"

I leaned foreward slightly, hope growing. "Queen?" Animals didn't have governments, surely. At least none would be fit to rule something. My only clouded guess was that she was human, and could help me get to Sora and Kairi in some way.

"Follow me."

The rabbit didn't bother waiting up. He continued his Speedy Gonzales pace, and I struggled to keep up. We entered deeper into the outskirts of a forest, and I had to push past brambles and step over shrubs which considerably slowed me down. When I called out an awkward label for him, he didn't stop, so I guess he must have forgotten about me. I let him fade from sight, surrounded and drowning in the green vegetation.

"Dammit. This isn't good." I plopped down onto my haunches, burying my chin into my knuckles. I didn't huddle there devastated in my self-pity for long.

"What ever is the matter?" At first I sardonically thought that perhaps God had gifted the trees with vocals as well, but then a girl with pools of yellow hair stepped out from the foliage and peered at me curiously, immaculate hands behind her back and left me appreciating my sanity.

A little more artlessly than usual, I stood up in her presence and nearly tripped over my own shoes. She watched me without amusement. Realizing suddenly that I didn't know what to do with my hands, I let them fall limp at my sides. Still watching me, expecting an answer. _Stop staring at me, will you? _I didn't let myself say something so harsh to her out loud, because trashing fellow human existence wouldn't be cool.

It took me just a second to regain my composure, and by then I was ready to talk. "If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me."

She laughed then. I didn't expect it. It was like the tinkling of bells – not quite a giggle. Just the clear, pure laughter of youth, uncut by cynical doubt. "Oh, believe me; everything here is believable, even though it seems like too much for belief."

Her logic had just nearly made my brain implode. In return, I gave her my silence.

She smiled her strangely full lips, and I realized that she was a little older than I had originally thought. Maybe Kairi's age, or perhaps a year younger.

"I'm Alice. Who might you be, since I don't believe you're from around here."

"You don't believe much, do you?" I drawled sarcastically, and then told her my name. "Riku."

"I asked you what could be wrong with you earlier, but if you don't want to tell me . . ." She either feigned pouting, or I was just imagining things. Or I had been spending too much time with Sora before he dropped off of the face of the planet.

"Well, I'm sort of . . . lost." I didn't bother telling her about my friends because I already figured she wouldn't be able to help me. One step at a time. Yeah, call me selfish or untrusting for instantly second-guessing anyone I met. Who I thought could help me most in this dwelling would be that Queen the rabbit had spoken of.

And wait. Did I just admit that I was _lost_? Kairi would be proud.

Maybe. If she still cared about me, thoughts and feelings and all, since she had more or less left me without even a goodbye.

"How convenient!" Alice said, revealing her hands and bringing them up to be placed together in a silent clap. "I find myself the same."

"Lost?"

"Yes, lost."

Great. See what I meant about her not helping?

I chewed on the inner-part of my lip, pondering. "Well, do you know –"

Before I could chance at asking her about the Queen's location, the rabbit came back. He split the area between us, back-pedaled, and swung his head towards Alice. "You!" He nearly hissed through his vampire-like front incisors, surprising us further by grabbing Alice around the wrist. "The Queen is very angry at you for escaping her, girl. But you won't do it again, now will you?" I nearly expected him to throw his head back and cackle. Whoever this queen was, I was steadily beginning to dislike her.

Just then, the rabbit began to tug her off into the foliage. "Hey!" I took a step foreward.

"Let me _go_, let me go!" Alice was remonstrating in her melodious voice, trying to slip her hand from his grasp. They shuffled into the forest and I belligerently followed.

Fingers splayed, they peeled back layers of leaves and twigs. In the distance, I heard a shrill 'hmph!' followed by an 'ow!' I let my imagination wander and figured that Alice had stepped promptly on the rabbit's foot. I suppressed a snicker while still trying to look for them. They seemed to have disappeared.

A labyrinth. That's what these woods were. The trees were twisted and bent, lined up to resemble a rough path that changed abruptly in certain areas and spread off in every which direction. The tangle of vegetation weaved together to create barricading walls so that it was nearly impossible to make a short cut through the dense verdure.

I don't know how long I wandered aimless through the conundrum, but I eventually broke free from the thicket and was greeted by sunlight, temporarily blinding my eyes. I squinted; the canopies of the overgrown copse had been a screen against the sun, disallowing any rays to penetrate through the leaves and grace the forest floor. I briefly wondered how there could be any life, then, when the ground got less than one percent of nutrition from the sun's energy. It was probably something I had learned in biology but never paid any attention to.

Once I regained the use of my sight, I began walking foreward again, intent upon finding Alice (well, I admit, my mind was only partially set on that matter at the time), when I lost my footing. My lips began to twist into a scowl, furious at myself for tripping like some klutz again. But as my blue eyes swerved downward, I saw with great clarity that I was not falling over a mushroom, but rather into a deep, dark hole.

It was a rabbit hole.

**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**

**N.otes  
**¤ Or muffins. Don't ask about the compressed muffins. You know they own you. ♥

_U_gh. This took me forever to begin writing. And then to continue and complete writing. I've been very distracted by numerous things inside and outside of life ( but that isn't really an excuse, is it? ). So, as an instantaneous conclusion, I decided to stop dragging ass and just update what I have. Four months is a nice stretch of time for a hiatus-type-thing. Yes, my failage truly astounds me. In the meanwhile, you'll be getting the other half of Wonderland in the next chapter. **  
**_A_nyway, I believe that this chapter thoroughly sucked, and I apologize. Uninspired. Very, very, _disgustingly_ uninspired. I'm going to (re-)murder whoever wrote that book and made the movie ( and whoever told me to include it in this fic – _Jes-si-ca_ ). Turning on KH1 and studying the surroundings of Wonderland only remotely helped.

_T_he display of 'male bonding' was based off of a real life occasion. Two boys in my English class had the same things done to them by some girl in their earlier class, and their friend asked them that question. I thought it was hilarious and just too Sora and Riku-like to pass up. (:


	6. Fortune Telling for the Wise

----------------------------  
Glue & Duct tape  
Chapter** Six **. _Fortune-Telling for the Wise__  
_-------------------

**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**xx**x**

Waking up at dawn was never a joy for me. Especially when there was a cheery cherry-headed individual standing next to my bed, then lowering her head to babble loud nonsense into my ear like "Rise and shine, sunshine!" and other sickish things you'd expect a mother to say. Clapping like cymbals would then penetrate my eardrums, causing them to throb in time with the obnoxious beat.

Then I'd feel a body fall on me.

"All right, all right, I'm awake," I'd grumble, rolling over to send Kairi toppling to the ground where she lied there, giggling. If I was in a rare good mood, I'd sometimes stuff her under my sheets and pin her beneath them. Cruel torture, I know; especially when she was claustrophobic.

Bubbly and positive wake-up calls were never my thing. Then again, neither were unpleasant wake-up calls.

"RikuRikuRiku! They've got a new ice cream at the shop down the block! It's called sea-salt ice cream and Wakka and Tidus said it's really good!"

I'd make inarticulate grunts in reply, slurred dreamsleep speech, telling him to Shut up, I don't care, I'm going back to sleep and _let me alone._

"Riku!" I felt a soft, dulled punch on my right shoulder, but I ignored it.

"Darn you, Riku, I'm going to go get some!"

He'd stomp off and leave me in ten minutes of blessed peace.

Then he'd be back.

"Hey Riku, I got you one!"

I made no response. Salt ice cream? Yuck. I was currently dreaming about strawberries. Yum, strawberries.

Then I felt cold, slick ice cream being pushed into my partially exposed face. I made a disgusted expression appear on my visage, similar to the one I put on when my mom told me to wash my sheets later that day.

But compared to these two wake-up calls, I've never had one quite like this.

"Hey Donald – hyuck – I found him!"

"Good job, Goofy! Now let's get him before he can run away again!"

"Grawrhjrjkfjkdjfkdjskdsl!"

"Hyuck!"

And so on and so forth.

I was suddenly brought out of my unconsciousness by two oversized animals tackling me. 'Everyone pile on Riku!'

"Gerroff me!"

"Pin him down, Goofy! Don't let him get away!"

"Hyuck, okay!"

"This _really_ isn't necessary—"

"Shut up, boy!" I felt myself being flapped with a wing. At that moment, I felt myself growing dizzy. Not because it hurt my head, no – but because I was being slapped by a giant, white, feathered _wing_.

"Gawrsh, Donald. We ain't supposed to treat the Keyblade Master like _that_!"

"Do you think I care?" The duck barked. I thought that was Goofy's job. "He's getting on my last nerves!"

"Please," I forced out in between my clenched teeth, "get _off_!"

After a moment of hesitance, I felt Goofy back away. I was thankful that my lungs were still working and my ribs not broken – for now, anyway.

Rolling myself into a sit-up position, I crossed my legs and folded my arms against my chest. I glared at my two companions with blighting blue eyes, as accusatory as a teacher who had just caught one of her students doing a bad deed.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for _you_!" Donald folded his wings onto his hips to match. Wait, did ducks even have hips?

When I said I didn't want to be with those guys, I had meant it. I was bluntly truthful, what could I say? Donald thought _I_ was getting on the last of his nerves – he was doing just the same with me. Of course, I didn't combust into a bunch of fluttering feathers when I was angry. I think.

. . I hope.

I quickly checked my arms for any feather growth. Nope; I was fine for now.

You know, salmonella poisoning?

Yeah yeah, that was for chickens. Moving on.

"You don't have to do that," I grumbled, avoiding their gazes.

"But, the King said he _have_ to follow the one who's got the keyblade. Hyuck . . . sorry, Riku." Goofy stared at me with what I could have sworn was a sympathetic gaze.

"If someone else had told us to, don't worry; we wouldn't have done it!" Donald rasped, now crossing his wings across his breast.

"Gosh Donald, that ain't very nice."

"Riku has a nasty attitude, and I'm tired of being kicked around by it!"

"Look in a mirror, Duckface," Came my timely (but not all that witty) retort.

"Now look here," Goofy said, taking on a stern face, "you two just get along until Riku finds Sora and Kairi, you hear? I'm _tired_ of hearing all this fighting."

The two being spoken to stood and looked at each other, both blowing air out of our noses (in Donald's case, nostrils) and silently 'humph'ing. Then we both nodded, barely tilting our heads as if in fear of them rolling off our necks.

"Good. Now let's get goin'!"

Goofy marched through a narrow corridor, and Donald waddled behind him to follow. I took the instance to look at my surroundings for the first time: I was in a decorated burrow of sorts, where the walls weren't dirt but actually pieced together with a mosaic of polished stones. I wonder what kind of animal lived here . . . but then I remembered the rabbit. No human would ever live underground.

Now I began to wonder: what if Donald and Goofy _were_ humans at one point, and some mad scientists injected animal DNA in them, or something crazy like that? I mean, I had heard of mutant animals, but they usually had extra deformed appendages hanging from their stomachs and the like: but nothing like this. They had human traits, they could talk, and dogs could even stand.

But then again, I've never met people quite like Donald and Goofy, so never mind.

Amidst my musings, we traversed the passageway and found ourselves in a gigantic room. It looked even too large to be in Bill Gates' mansion. Of course, I don't think the Microsoft genius would have pink-and-white patterned walls and different blocky odds and ends in his living room. Instead, he probably had computer parts littering the floors and metal walls. Both were completely weird, if I say so myself.

In the back of the room, fixed right in the center, was a door. Donald walked towards it determinedly, but was thrown back with a frazzled quack when it grew a face and began to talk.

I do believe this room wins in the contest of strangeness.

The bulbous golden knob seemed to bend and turn into liquid brass the second it was touched; it molded into a disfigured form, and a magic, invisible pencil etched a mouth and eyes onto its shining surface.

The thing coughed, sputtered, and blinked.

"Come now, what's the meaning of disturbing my sleep?"

Now there are talking _inanimate _objects!

"We were trying to open the door!" Donald huffed, apparently unfazed after getting zapped back a few feet from shock.

"I was sleeping quite peacefully, really . . ."

"Gosh, Donald, lookit that. A talking doorknob!"

I still said nothing and stared at the spectacle, bemused.

"Why yes; there are a lot of us, here."

"Hyuck – think I can touch it?" Goofy bent down and made to poke at the knob, apparently still unaware of what it was saying, and that it could possibly have a _mind_.

"Do not _poke_ me, sir!" The doorknob sniffed.

"Oops; sorry," Goofy chuckled.

"Can we get in or what?" Asked the duck, growing ever-impatient.

"Only if you ask nicely."

"Open up, you fuckin creepy door." I finally said.

"Why, that wasn't nice at _all_!" It glared at me. "I think I shall go back to sleep."

"No, wait—!" Donald and Goofy scrambled to the door, the smaller of the two flaying his fists on the wood. I rolled my eyes vaguely and began to stalk around the room, feigning boredom. Truthfully, I was just impatient as Donald – I just wasn't showing it. I wanted to find Sora and Kairi – they could be here. But we weren't getting anywhere when there was an asinine door blocking our path.

Donald whirled on me. "Look what you did!"

"_I_ didn't do anything."

"Liar!" He jumped once in rage.

"Oh, what's this?" I said sarcastically, twirling a small bottle in my fingers.

"Well, how should I know?" Scratched Donald, turning his head away and pointing his flat beak to the ceiling.

"Guess. Amuse me, duck."

"I don't know; tell me!"

"I don't know either."

"You little—"

"_Guys_!" Cried an exasperated Goofy, splaying his hands in a hopeless gesture, interrupting our bantering.

I tossed the small glass bottle to Donald. "Take it."

"_I'm_ not going to drink it. I don't know what it is or where it's been."

"In my hands."

"_Exactly_ why I shouldn't drink it!"

"Gosh, you guys sound more immature than I do," Admitted Goofy. I shuffled my feet a little, slightly ashamed. But, messing with Donald was like messing with a short fuse, without getting burned. It was fun when you had nothing else better to do.

"I guess I'll have to drink it if you two are being funny," Goofy said, squinting his eyes and examining the bottle. "Can't be too bad."

"Oh, you're wrong about that," The door cut in, which was supposedly 'sleeping.'

We shot it a quick glare, and then Goofy continued, tipping back the glass. "Well, bottoms up."

And then Goofy disappeared.

Really.

For a second.

We heard a little squeak that could have been a mouse. Donald, who was lower to the ground, could make it out as speech quicker than I could. While I was still looking around, bewildered, he crouched down and pointed. "_Here_!"

I didn't know what he was showing me at first. Was it a speck of dust, the only remnant left of Our Lovable Goof? A capped tooth? There was another squeak – and suddenly I heard it.

"Donald! Riku! I'm _tiny_!"

"You're such a goof, Goofy," Donald said, and then burst into sobs.

At this moment, I had no clue what to do. I certainly wasn't going to comfort Donald – obviously, we didn't like each other, and Goofy was not dead as the duck had probably assumed. So I just waited until he recovered and hoped that Goofy could cheer him up – somehow.

"Gosh, Donald, no need to cry," He said. "I'm okay!"

"No you're _not_," The one being talked to wailed. "I could step on you!"

"But you won't, will you?"

"Well . . . maybe . . ."

"Then it's all good!"

Donald sniffed and wiped his remaining tears away with a helpful sleeve of feathers.

"How touching," I muttered.

Now Goofy was back in business. He pointed up with a centimeter-length finger at the table that was now most likely towering stories above him. "I think if you drink the other two bottles there, you'll get small, too, and we can all get through the door!"

"I don't know," I said.

"This isn't time for your skepticism, Riku."

"No – I mean—" I stared down at my feet, embarrassed. Donald must have seen me blush, and he quickly pounced on the weakening kill.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm – I'm afraid of heights."

". . ."

". . Well, Riku. Gettin' small won't be like gettin' big!"

"But everything _else _will be tall!" I yelled. Playing it back in my own ears, I sounded like a baby.

Donald continued not to say anything. It was making me even more uncomfortable. Big surprise.

"I'm not going to do it," I declared.

"You want to see Kairi and Sora again, right?"

"Right, but . . . there has to be some other way."

Suddenly, laughter penetrated the awkward conversation. I glanced to my right to see that Donald was breaking into snickers, and eventually hysterical bouts of guffawing belly-chucking bellows.

"What's so funny?" I snapped.

"You – you're afraid of heights?"

"Yeah, so?"

"The Keyblade Master, who can fight off Heartless and be a total jerk, is afraid of heights." He sounded like he still couldn't believe it.

My cheeks were getting hot again. "It has something to do with when Sora forced me to go on a rollercoaster. We got stuck up there for an hour."

"_Still._"

"It's a perfectly logical reason to be afraid of heights. You don't know how traumatizing it was, being stuck next to Sora for that long with both of us freaking out."

"You've gotta be joking."

"Many people are afraid of heights," I quoted factually.

Do you want to hear the story? I think you do.

"Riku, let's go on _this _ride!" The spiky-haired brunette tugged anxiously at my arm, directing my attention to the ride he was pointing at.

I glanced at the title and automatically replied with a 'no.'

"Come _on_, man! It looks super-_awesome_!"

"The Super-Mega-Barf-o-Rama-Rollercoaster-of-Hellish-Doom?" I repeated aloud. "I don't think so. And don't say 'super-awesome' again."

"Kairi told me it was fun."

"When did _Kairi _go on this?" Kairi definitely did not strike me as a rollercoaster person.

"She went with Selphie a couple months ago."

I turned away, trying to escape and avoid the predicament. He held on fast to my arm.

"If you don't go on this with me, Riku . . ."

"Why can't you just go by yourself?"

"Because I'm scared, too."

Sora never ceases to amaze me.

I argued that I was not _scared_ of rollercoasters on the way to the back of the line, per se; I just didn't like them. Sora ended up planting kettle corn in my hair and I eventually shut up, growing nearer to the entrance to the ride where they were shoving kids into grip-lock seats.

"You're going to pay for this, Sora," I said when the protective bar fell down upon our laps. I really wished they just stuck with seatbelts – these things seemed ancient and unsteady, and God knows how many grubby hands have scrambled to get a hold on it. It'd be just my luck if I flew out during a loop-de-loop.

"But these rides are free."

"I didn't mean that."

"Oh."

Before I could say anything else, the ride started. I hastily gripped the rail behind the person in front of me's head. And I braced myself. After ten seconds of wide-eyed staring, I eventually closed my eyes just as we were climbing a dip.

"Whooo, this is gonna be fun!" Sora yelled beside me, lifting up his hands and nearly banging them into the side of my head. Concussion just another injury to add onto the list.

I felt like I was falling. In a way, it was worse than my dreams – because there was that sickening _slipping_ feeling in my gut. The car lurched forward and then down, sliding on its track and going 50 mph. Sora was screaming – I bit back mine, and it made me feel even more sick.

In a blur, the ride suddenly slowed to a stop, right when we were climbing the tallest hill on the coaster. I cautiously opened my eyes – was it over? Why did I still feel like I was on an 80 foot high building?

What I saw caused me to swing my head reluctantly over the side and barf down upon the tiny ants (people) scurrying around down below. There goes my popcorn, ice cream bar, and soda.

"What's happened?" Sora squeaked.

"I threw up," I said, wiping my mouth and grimacing.

"No, I mean, the ride."

"I don't know." I leaned back against my seat – we virtually already were. Taking a deep breath, I stared up at the open blue sky. "I just hope it ends soon."

Fifteen minutes later, while the other people in the car either sat still and motionless in their seats or chattered to build up the anticipation, a loudspeaker sounded off from the ground.

"_The ride is experiencing some temporary malfunctions that have caused it to shut down! It will be back up shortly; don't worry, you're safe up there."_

Safe. Yeah right.

Another fifteen minutes later we began to panic.

"Sora . . . this just isn't cool." I clung to his skinny arm for support, eyes darting in a paranoid manner to and fro as if some giant bat-thing could come down and scoop us vulnerable, trapped victims up in its claws.

"Riku . . . I'm sc-scared," He said, shaking and clinging to me in return.

Then I felt the car shift and groan. I let out my own moan of despair.

"We're gonna die up here, Sora."

"And no one will find our bodies."

"Because we'll land a hundred feet below – ker-splat."

"Nothing left."

We're good at coming up with reassuring thoughts.

Twenty-something minutes later.

"Mommyyy," Sora wailed. "I want my Mommy."

"I want a sucker," Said I.

"I—" Sniff "thought you didn't like suckers."

"Only when you've slobbered on them first, you big goon."

"Ohhh, Riku."

"Ohhhhh, Sora."

Without warning, while we were still huddling there, the coaster lurched to a start. We both flew back into our seats, screaming and rolling down the hill with great intensity.

Near the end, I lost my fries and burger, as well.

Finally, as we were walking out, Sora pointed to the screen that had the instant-expression shots from the scariest parts in the ride.

"Look at your _face_!"

I either looked like I was constipated, about to die, or scared out of my mind. Sora purchased the picture and put it in his room as a trophy.

Eventually, I moved myself towards the table to take another bottle. This one was remotely crafted in a spherical shape. I had to decided to take it, even if I'd be the size of half a pencil as a result.

"Honey, I Shrunk the Dog, the Duck, and the Keyblade Bearer," I murmured, taking the tiny portion of a swig from the bottle. At the same time, Donald took his own shrinking potion in a more rectangular container.

Then we both exploded.

Kidding; instead, we shrank down to the same size as Goofy and stood beside him, dazzled by the new perspective we were seeing of the room.

I was dazzled by the lights; they stung my sensitive, miniscule eyes. Everything seemed to spin around me in a new dimension.

"Cool, isn't it?"

I did not agree with Goofy.

"To the door, everybody!"

I began to wonder; why wasn't _I_ leading this expedition? These two were supposed to be following _me_, not taking the lead themselves.

Ah well. They'd get eaten by whatever monster lied behind that door first, while I still had a chance to run.

We stood facing the door, which was now a perfect height. It's funny how I didn't think about how we would be able to get through in the first place if it had been opened.

I was the first to speak.

"Hi."

Genius, no?

"Hello," It responded. "Oh wait. I don't like _you_." It turned its rounded nose away from me upon realizing I was the 'not nice' one.

"Goofy," I said, turning to him, "why don't you try to open him up?"

"Well, hyuck, sure . . . I guess." He stepped up to the door almost bashfully, but grew more confident as he went. "Well, hiya Mister Doorknob. Will you please open up for us?"

"Most certainly. That was very nice, very nice," The knob complied, and the small, arched door swung open.

First thing, I took off running to get ahead of my two companions. Companions. How can I call them that? My only companions were Sora and Kairi, but they were gone.

But maybe . . . maybe they were behind this door.

And I'd be the first to see. Screw the monster that may be lurking behind it; I could handle monsters. But I was beginning to doubt if I could handle seeing my best friends again.

What lied behind the door was indeed a monster – but not the type I had in mind.

We entered a grandiose courtyard, full of trimmed bushes the exact same height as the ones next to it that made a sort of gate around the small rectangular field. There were even bush sculptures dabbling the piece of land. The lawn was perfectly green, as well as the bushes. In the center was what looked like the structure an accused stepped upon to face the judge and jury.

And there was the judge – big, fat and ugly in all her glory. She wore her ebony hair in a kind of bun atop her head, and her large body all but spilled over the chair she sat in. The woman was clothed in a gigantic checker-patterned dress of red, black, and white collar. She held onto the judge's mallet fastidiously, as if letting go would mean letting go of her power, her job.

I didn't recognize her (God forbid if I ever did), but I did recognize at least two people (one not exactly a person) in that procession. Standing before us, her back facing me, was a girl in a white apron, powder blue dress, and stockings. A mane of yellow hair pooled behind her; I instantly thought, _Alice_. What was Alice doing here, and especially standing where the convicted should be?

But then I spotted the white rabbit. That git must've brought her here. I felt anger rise inside me, and I was half-aware of my hands clenching into fists at my sides.

"Alice!" I yelled, and began to run up to her like the git that I was. Finally; a familiar face that didn't offend me. Unfortunately, on my way up to meet her, two guards (cards) abruptly blocked my path with some nasty-looking spears.

"Hey! What is this?"

The judge whirled on me, giving me the evil eye. Her left eye literally bulged out of its socket. "This, boy, is a courtroom in session! And _you_ were not invited!"

"But you've got the wrong girl, for whatever reason! Alice would never do anything wrong!" How did I know that? I don't know. I'm a genius, remember?

"Ms. Queen," Said the rabbit, beginning to scurry around in his standing place, "would you like me to take care of him?"

"No. Guards, take him away!"

"So you're the queen? Some queen, accusing the innocent!"

Alice stifled a little gasp with her slender hand. "Riku, really, this isn't necessary—"

Donald and Goofy apparently agreed – they looked itching to grab hold of me and drag me back to that funhouse of a room, but they were blocked by their own guards.

Perhaps it was because Her Highness was now clutching at the edge of the podium with fierce intensity, her knuckles growing incredibly pale from the pressure.

"Are you accusing _me_ of accusing the innocent?"

"Yeah, I'm accusing you of accusing you of accusing the innocent."

"Out_rageous_!" She bellowed. Spittle flew from her fleshy lips as she blabbered. "I'd do no such thing. This is _my_ kingdom! _Mine_! Everyone does what I say, including you!"

"Sorry for crashing your party, _Your Highness_, but your tyranny days are over."

What an empty threat – now that I could think it over when I wasn't being hotheaded, I realized I was just a kid who was standing up against a queen and all her armed guards. Not too smart; I guess my genius scale just went down a few notches.

I wasn't all too good at fighting yet, either. Sure, I was better than some – but I was grossly outnumbered. I couldn't take on all of them. I struggled as the guards locked my arms behind my back, gritting my teeth in pain.

Then I saw a blue substance fly past me –

And a spinning object that could have been an incredibly small UFO or a shield.

"Gyah! Take that, stupid cards!" Donald yelled, leaping into the air and shooting more spells at the guards, which tumbled back onto the ground, apparently stunned.

But there were more. Mine were out of business for the moment, but the queen was yelling amongst the racket of battle and sending in more troops. They marched with their weapons pointed, lances that would surely pierce any body, human or animal, and turn them into a kebab.

I whipped out my keyblade and stood in defensive stance. If they were coming; let them come.

But then I heard Alice's shrill voice rise about the noise.

"You don't haveto get into _trouble_ for me!" She cried out, and I saw that her hands had disappeared – two cards had her. They were dragging her back, and although she was protesting, she couldn't deal with their unbelievable overpowering strength.

"No! Let me go, _please_!"

"_Alice_!"

I tried to run forward, but was blocked by a barrier of cards. My eyes darted from left to right, searching for an alternative escape route. There was a gap in between some bushes; I ran for it.

I think I heard Donald's scathing yell behind me, but ignored it. They were being taken by the guards now, but I didn't care, did I? I was going to find a way to Alice, and then a way out of this place.

If you ask me why I acted so 'heroically' out there, it's because when Alice was being dragged away against my will, I was reminded of Kairi. Though I hadn't seen her disappear, it was how I imagined it. The Heartless clawing at her wrists, her hair – and then stealing her away while she screamed weakly in protest. And I had let it happen again.

After about three minutes, I slowed down to a walk, figuring they wouldn't bother with me. It was an oddly risky safe thought – but I believed it, anyway. I wasn't important to them right now, even though I had insulted their precious queen. Yeah, as queenly as a fat pig on a platter with an apple stuffed in her mouth.

I began to focus more on my surroundings. I seemed to be in another forest, but this one darker than the other. There wasn't as much tropical-like vegetation, either – instead, there were trees stripped bare of their colour, like trees you'd find in a swamp, and mutant flowers.

Seriously. These things (tulips, they looked like) were nearly twice as tall as me. They curved over, stems like delicate necks, red and yellow and purple. I spared them a glance as I walked by them, but nothing more than that. Then I heard a raspy voice beside me, but one that wrapped around my arms and neck like seductive smoke:

"Give me a potion and I'll make you bigger."

"I don't even want to know," I mumbled, strolling past them a little faster.

Let's sum it up. Here there were overlord queens, rabbit holes the size of flying saucers, cards with deadly weapons, animate-inanimate doors, and flowers that wanted to make me bigger. What next?

"What, oh what, could it possibly be? Isn't that right?"

The disembodied voice that came out of nowhere had me spooked; I nearly jumped and turned around to see where it had come from. But I saw nothing but darkness, shadows, and trees.

"Who's there?" I asked, with an edge of hostility and fear in my words.

"Trying to act tough won't do you any good, you know. I'll still eat'cha."

Creepy beyond belief.

"Where the heck are ya?" I put my hands in front of me and felt around in the bushes like a blind bat. This was getting both annoying and worrisome.

"Not there," The voice laughed, "_here_!"

I followed the voice.

"Over _here_, I said, said I! Oh yes, I said."

"Whoever, whatever, and wherever you are; you're psychotic!" I yelled angrily, punching a tree. Ouch.

Then I saw large, yellow orbs appear just above a tree branch. They bobbed lightly, seeming to dance – and then a head suddenly materialized behind those eyes.

_I hope this is a hologram, _I thought, but wasn't convinced.

The head belong to what looked like a cat; the plump body with an arched back followed. Then the bushy tail. It was striped two different tones of purple, coiling around its body, and had a raccoon mask bordering its devious eyes. The cat hummed softly (but irritatingly), its curled mouth moving up and down.

"Stop that! Are you some tripped-up magic trick?"

"Trick?" It purred, rolling languidly onto its back. "Nooo, not at all! I'm the Cheshire Cat!" And it gave me a grin as wide as a crescent moon. Its teeth looked dangerously sharp.

"Am I supposed to clap?" I said, sarcasm dripping from my question.

"Only if you want to."

I chose not to answer; it was obvious by seeing my hands draped at my sides.

"Lost, are you?" It asked.

"No; I'm looking for someone." I paused. "Actually, two people."

"Oh, I saw them."

My eyes must have glittered. "Did you?"

"Yes, just over there!"

I turned in the direction he pointed. But before I could do anything, he appeared on the branch just above the place I was looking at. Sly dog.

Sorry, but I don't like being tricked. I hate falling for things; I hate knowing I'm wrong. And I do them anyway, so that just makes me feel worse.

"This is getting old. I you can't help me, I'm leaving."

"There's nowhere to go; this forest is a maze.

"No . . . way . . . out." It grinned its mocking smile. "But there might be one way."

"And what way is that?" Eye roll.

"I'll give you a clue."

_Yeah, you better this time – a _real _one_, I thought, affronted.

The cat's eyes suddenly went blank; swallowed by yellow. And it uttered a single phrase: "This isn't me."

"What?" So this was some cat-demon and he was possessed?

He said it one more time: "This isn't me."

And then he disappeared.

My reaction was kicking a tree.

"Fuck!" I verbalized, letting out all my anger on that poor overgrown piece of shrubbery.

"Heehee – did I help you?"

I looked up again – there he was, but it was only his head this time, bobbing above another limb.

"_No_."

"You'll find out soon." And with that ominous note, he began to fade once more.

"Go south and you'll find what you're looking for." The voice drifted away as soon as it touched my ears.

"South?" I yelled. "Which way is south?" Damn. Should've brought a compass.

"This way, that way; any way!" The laughter died away, and the cat was gone for certain.

It's official: I hate puzzles.

With my head spinning from the confusing (and pointless) encounter, I decided to walk where he had been last. I passed by trees . . . trees . . . and more trees.

Finally, I emerged into a clearing that had absolutely no trees except for the ones bordering it. It was a nice change in scenery.

Until I really looked at what was in the center of the clearing.

A long, elegant-looking table had been placed vertically down the middle. Draped over it was a white sheet. Kettles, candles, and cups dappled the table top, and a mix-matched array of chairs was placed around its parameters.

Someone had decided to set up a tea party in the middle of the forest, and I was invited.

But what really got me was the two people that were sitting at the table.

One was a boy. He had brown spiky hair and large blue eyes.

The other was a girl. She had short crimson hair and stunning violet eyes.

One was smiling, one was grinning, waiting for me to sit down at the table.

Initially, I was too shocked to speak; only jaw hung loosely, exposing my open and gaping mouth. Then, after much mind-clearing, I was able to talk my instant concerns.

"Sora, Kairi. I knew I'd find you here."

I was more thrilled than I sounded. I began to walk towards them, all too eager to sit down and drink tea with my best friends, when I blinked and they were gone.

Actually, everything was gone.

All that was left was the clearing.

I tried to make sense of it. I _tried_. All I could think of was that I missed my friends too much, so it was doing things with my mind.

Or perhaps the forest was.

Feeling sore and down, I walked glidingly through the area I could have _sworn_ they'd been in. I was not crazy. I had really seen them.

But my eyes now told me otherwise.

Was it possible to be abducted in a split second, along with all the other things around you? Anything seemed possible in these hellish woods.

_These aren't your nightmares anymore, Riku, _I told myself. _This is reality._

I retreated to the back of the clearing, ducking through a break in the trees. I came out in sunshine and butterflies . . . and Donald and Goofy.

"Riku!" Donald panted. "We were looking _everywhere _for you!"

"Yeah," Goofy agreed, "you gave us a scare."

I had my eyes lowered; I did not look at them directly.

"Uh, Riku, what's wrong . . . ?"

Donald must have remembered that I ditched them earlier and left them for the guards, because his eyes suddenly narrowed sourly.

"Don't talk to him, Goofy," He snapped. "Let's just take him back to the ship."

Goofy gave me another vacant stare, sighed, and then began to follow next to Donald. I considered not going with them – but what other choice did I have? The Gummi Ship was the only way to get to other worlds.

Maybe Sora and Kairi would be there.

And they'd be _real_, this time.

**N.otes****  
**_H_aha. My mom's face looked like Riku's when we were on Space Mountain.  
_A_nd I, of course, was screaming. I learned that I was a good screamer at Disneyland.

_I_ honestly didn't know it would take me this long to update. Seven months? I'm a failure. But then, my Kairiku collection is worse – I believe it's at ten months past neglected.

_I_ thank **The Mangosity** for getting me to update this faster. :D And see – I got the next chapter up only a day after you reviewed! I also am _very_ grateful towards all my other readers and reviewers, and whoever's joined the party since I started this last year. Say something if you're reading! Anything you liked or noticed while you were reading. I love loud reviewers. And believe me, reviews _do_ make me update faster, so I know that I'm not just wasting my time.

Next time: Riku's going jungle. Literally, but not literally.


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